Food industry ‘responsibility deal’ has little effect on health, study finds
Abstract: In 2012, many food firms, supermarkets and high street chains agreed a series of voluntary pledges with the Department of Health in which they committed to playing their part in trying to ensure that Britons consume 5bn fewer calories a day.
Andrew Lansley, the health secretary at the time, said it was “a great step in the right direction and will help millions of us eat and drink fewer calories”.
But the new research, which is based on examining changes delivered since then by food companies, concludes: “The current nature and formulation of the responsibility deal food pledges is that such pledge implementation is unlikely to have much effect on nutrition-related health in England.”
Researchers led by Cecile Knai, an expert in food and obesity, write in the journal Food Policy that although many firms that have taken part in the deal agreed to make their products healthier, for example by reducing the amount of salt in them, few have done so. “Though reformulation was most commonly listed in the delivery plans, the act of signing up to the RD motivated few organisations to implement such interventions,” they write.
