Health bodies welcome plans to restrict promotion of unhealthy food

Health experts have welcomed Scottish Government plans to restrict the promotion of foods high in fat, sugar or salt, as they warned relying on “personal responsibility” is not working.

The Government proposes restrictions on multi-buys, unlimited refills and selling junk food at locations such as checkouts and front of store in a bid to combat child obesity.

The Scottish Retail Consortium (SRC) said the planned rules are “disproportionate” and will increase prices for consumers while hampering small businesses.

But in support of the regulations, Public Health Scotland and Food Standards Scotland have published a joint briefing paper calling for “ambitious” plans to create a better relationship with food, and to combat heart disease, type 2 diabetes and certain cancers.

It highlights that children living in poorer areas are more likely to be exposed to unhealthy food on their high streets, where childhood obesity rates are highest.

The paper notes that improvements to the “food environment”, including increasing the number of healthy foods on promotion, will make it easier for people to access healthier options and ultimately improve the health of people in Scotland.

The 12-week consultation will conclude on May 21.

Public health minister Jenni Minto said: “Improving health and supporting people to eat well and have a healthy weight is a public health priority. We need to address the high levels of excess weight, obesity and poor diet we know are contributing to worsening trends in Scotland’s health.

“The association between these issues and health outcomes such as heart disease, type 2 diabetes and certain cancers has been established for some time. We want to ensure Scotland is a place where we eat well and have a healthy weight.

“The Scottish Government is committed to restricting promotions of foods high in fat, sugar or salt at the point of purchase as research shows this is when people make decisions about what and how much to buy, for themselves and their families.

“This consultation, together with our diet and healthy weight delivery plan, demonstrates the ambitious and wide-ranging action we believe is needed to address this challenge.

“It will run in parallel with an extensive programme of inclusive stakeholder engagement, to improve the process of developing, implementing and reviewing regulations to meet our long-term public health and economic aims.”

Paul Johnston, chief executive of Public Health Scotland, said: “Nutritious food is essential for our health but our chances of accessing healthy food depend strongly on where we live.

“In Scotland, people living in communities associated with poverty are less likely to have access to affordable, healthy food and are more likely to experience poor health as a result.

“Cost-of-living pressures have put healthier options out of reach for many. Very often, the food that is most accessible and heavily promoted are those most damaging to our health.

“We must ensure that eating well is the easiest thing to do – not the hardest. It’s only through direct action, like addressing marketing behaviours on unhealthy food, that we can improve Scotland’s health and reduce widening health inequalities.

“We welcome the Scottish Government’s consultation as an important opportunity to drive change, a turning point to creating a food system for the people of Scotland that puts health as the number one priority.”

Geoff Ogle, chief executive of Food Standards Scotland, said: “The consultation is a welcome move to target the heavy promotion of unhealthy food and is needed to rebalance our food environment and help address this critical public health issue.”

He added: “If now is not the time to take action, when is? When levels of overweight and obesity reach 85% from the current two-thirds of the adult population? ‘Not now’ cannot be an argument any longer.

“We can’t rely on personal responsibility alone to change our eating habits any longer: that approach has not worked for at least 40 years and won’t work now.”

But Ewan MacDonald-Russell, deputy head of the SRC, said: “Scottish ministers appear determined to put up prices despite consumers reeling from a cost-of-living crisis.

“These proposals will prevent retailers competing on price on any of the products caught by these rules, meaning shoppers miss out both on the benefits of competition but also from falls in inflation.

“The restrictions on placing these products in-store will make life harder for Scottish producers who will now have to compete with international brands with much greater consumer recognition.

“These disproportionate restrictions follow a bumper hike in business rate bills for medium sized and larger shops, as well as a mooted new surtax on food and drink retailers.

“All this will hinder rather than help retailers’ ability to keep down prices for Scotland’s shoppers during a cost-of-living crisis, the last thing Scotland’s hard-pressed consumers need.”