Critics: UK plan to cut child obesity lacks muscle

“It contains a few nice ideas, but so much is missing”, he wrote on Facebook.

The charity is supported in their disappointment by leading oral health organisation, the British Society of Dental Hygiene and Therapy (BSDHT), who labelled the strategy as a substantial backwards step in addressing the UK’s children’s oral health crisis.

“The Government has had the chance to take effective action on a number of fronts and failed on each and every one of them”.

The Food and Drink Federation promised a collaborative approach to dealing with the issues.

Gavin Partington, of the British Soft Drinks Association, said his industry had been “singled out” by the “punitive” tax on sugary drinks. “We are committed to that partnership”, he says.

“Soft drink companies are already making great progress to reduce sugars from their products, having achieved a 16% reduction between 2012 and 2016”.

“Moreover the target is unlikely to be technically practical across all the selected food categories”.

Wright claimed reformulation was both hard and costly, and presented different challenges for each product.

Michaela ONeill, President of the BSDHT, added: “As dental professionals we see first-hand the devastating effect that too much sugar has on our children’s oral health”.

Mike Coupe, Sainsbury’s chief executive, said today: ‘This is a welcome first step, but we need a holistic approach to tackle childhood obesity. “If the United Kingdom was looking to this strategy for direction, the route isn’t yet mapped out”. Instead it has rowed back on its promises by announcing a weak plan rather than the robust strategy it promised. “Targets are also needed to reduce levels of saturated fat and salt in products – these must be backed up by regulation”.

The Children’s Food Campaign described the delayed report as a “truly shocking abdication of the Government’s duties to secure the health and future of the next generation”.

A key measure of the new strategy is the introduction of a voluntary target for the food and drink industry to reduce sugar in products by 20 per cent. Manufacturers that adhere to these guidelines will escape a sugar tax, which is due to be implemented in 2018.

He added: “It is disappointing that, despite the clear benefits that could be achieved with a UK-wide approach to tackling obesity through advertising and marketing, there was no discussion with Scotland before the United Kingdom government decided not to pursue this option”.

Children aged 5 and from the poorest income groups are twice as likely to be obese compared to their most well off counterparts and by age 11 they are three times as likely. The Government can not afford to shy away from this challenge.

Public Health England are to chart progress of the voluntary scheme over the next four years.

It had been hoped that the long-awaited childhood obesity strategy would follow recommendations from Public Health England, particularly curbs on junk food advertising and multi-buy promotions to help address the crisis, neither of which feature in the strategy.

Celebrity chef and healthy eating campaigner Jamie Oliver said ministers had missed an opportunity to reverse the “tide of diet-related disease”.

Liberal Democrat leader Tim Farron said the strategy should be based on evidence of what works not “vested interests of ministers or the lobbyists from the junk food industry”.

In October the Child Obesity Plan (ChOP) was delivered with 22 initiatives, only nine of which were new.

Alongside this plan, HM Treasury are consulting on the technical detail of the soft drinks industry levy over the summer, and will legislate in the Finance Bill 2017.

Despite the strategy being focussed on tackling obesity, the knock on effect it would have had on oral health was enormous and what we have seen today spells bad news for generations of our children.

The programme, the government intends to launch with funds raised from the sugar levy, will focus on promoting healthy diets and physical activity in schoolchildren, Public Health Minister Nicola Blackwood said.