Andy Burnham’s government is reportedly pressing ahead with further restrictions on promoting unhealthy foods with deals like ‘buy one get one free’. These regulations were introduced by Boris Johnson, but Labour now wants to update – and broaden – what is defined as unhealthy.
Up to now, this has been determined by a 2004 nutrient profiling model. The government wants to use a model created in 2018 which, among other things, distinguishes between ‘free’ sugars (those which have been added to a product or released from its structure) and intrinsic ones. This means that many foods which use lots of added sugar, like a yoghurt with honey, will be considered unhealthy and barred from aisle-end promotions or multibuy deals.
Though these foods do not fit our traditional mental image of junk food, they are by no means ‘healthy’
There are many valid criticisms of this approach. Very few countries are this aggressive with sugar control. Compliance costs for assessing products will be high and those costs will ultimately be passed on to consumers. Britain saw exceptional food price inflation after the invasion of Ukraine – while the closure of the Strait of Hormuz, through which much of the world’s fertiliser materials pass, should increase food inflation substantially over the next year. So there is a case for scrapping or pausing this change rather than putting more pressure on the cost of living, particularly as some early evidence of the impact of GLP-1s on obesity at a population level suggests that there is a different path to fighting the epidemic, one which does not rely on top-down restriction.
What is less defensible is the suggestion that the foods which the government wants to crack down on are healthy. In the Sun’s writeup, which made the front page this morning, Labour is attacked for branding ‘good foods’ as ‘unhealthy’. The article complains that golden syrup porridge boxes and fruit juices could fall foul of the rule changes.
The problem here is that though these foods do not fit our traditional mental image of junk food – they are not packets of crisps or bars of chocolate – they are by no means ‘healthy’. Take Asda’s ‘tangy & sweet orange juice’, a photo of which accompanies the Sun’s article. This juice is around 47 calories per 100ml, with 9.5 grams of sugar. Coca-Cola, by comparison, has 42 calories per 100ml, with 10.6 grams of sugar. In sugar and calories, fizzy drinks and orange juice ‘with bits in’ are almost identical, so swapping out your children’s Coca-Cola for orange juice will not help them control their weight.
This is also true of Quaker’s golden syrup porridge. Though Quaker advertises the product as being ‘100 per cent wholegrain’, it is a plain food which has been sweetened with sugar, making it less healthy than unsweetened porridge oats. Each 100 grams of this foodstuff contains 18 grams of sugars, meaning that almost a fifth of it is sugar. Coco Pops, by comparison, contain 17 grams of sugar per 100 grams.
Common sense may suggest that porridge and a large glass of orange juice make a healthier start to the day than a bowl of Coco Pops and a can of Coke. But it is this common sense that has made 30 per cent of British adults obese and a further 36 per cent overweight.
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