Children's Food Campaign's response to the appointment of Jeremy Hunt as Health Secretary

Responding to the appointment of Jeremy Hunt as Health Secretary in today’s Government reshuffle, Malcolm Clark, co-ordinator of Children’s Food Campaign, said:

“In his role as Health Secretary, Andrew Lansley relied too much on big food businesses taking action voluntarily to promote less fatty, salty and sugary food to children through his ill-conceived Responsibility Deal [1]. With the appointment of Jeremy Hunt to lead the country in the fight against obesity and other diet-related disease, the Children’s Food Campaign is very concerned that the new Minister may also be in thrall to big business. His recent role overseeing the Olympics at the Department for Culture, Media and Sport does not bode well [2], given that lucrative sponsorship deals meant that chips, burgers, chocolate and fizzy drinks were promoted to young people at the Games by the Olympic sponsors.”

“However, we remain hopeful that Jeremy Hunt will use his new position to take a more sensible approach and lead effective action to protect children’s health through the regulation of junk food marketing.”

“Jeremy Hunt was at the forefront of efforts to use the Olympics to promote physical exercise to children [3]. However, the importance of a healthy diet – for sporting success and for tackling obesity – has been downplayed by Ministers and the food industry alike. Jeremy Hunt will need to take decisive action to control junk food marketing to children, to make up for the London 2012 Obesity Games.”

“One area in which Jeremy Hunt could show immediate leadership is food labelling. In the past, he has publicly recognised the importance of food labelling in helping consumers make informed food choices [4]. With Tesco’s recent switch to colour-coded labelling for fat, salt and sugar [5], a major milestone for public health, the majority of the UK’s supermarkets now use the proven most effective labelling system. Jeremy Hunt should promptly recommend a consistent traffic light format on all food labels, and use his new leadership role to push for all retailers and manufacturers to adopt it. This would be a simple, low-cost and effective way to start helping everybody to eat a healthier diet.”

For further information and interviews, please contact Malcolm Clark on 07733322148, or malcolm@sustainweb.org

Notes:

1. Read the Children’s Food Campaign’s detailed critique of Andrew Lansley’s Responsibility Deal in “The Irresponsibility Deal? Why the Government’s Responsibility Deal is better for the food industry than for public health”, which can be downloaded at: https://www.sustainweb.org/publications/?id=188

2. Jeremy Hunt’s previous role was as Secretary for the Department of Culture, Media, Sport and the Olympics. A DCMS letter to Children’s Food Campaign and British Heart Foundation dated 20 December 2011 set out the Department’s faith in industry self-regulation for the marketing of food to children and in the Responsibility Deal’s voluntary approach to food industry measures to protect public health.  For further information on this issue, see  https://www.sustainweb.org/news/feb12_asa_supercomplaint/

3. DCMS role in supporting the School Games is reported here.

4. Jeremy Hunt signed an Early Day Motion (1518) on Guideline Daily Amount labelling in the 2007/8 parliamentary session 

5. For more on Tesco’s traffic light labelling announcement, see https://www.sustainweb.org/news/aug12_tesco_traffic_light_labelling/

6. The Children’s Food Campaign aims to improve young people’s health and well-being through better food – and food teaching – in schools and by protecting children from junk food marketing.  We are supported by over 160 national organisations and co-ordinated by Sustain: the alliance for better food and farming.  For more information see www.childrensfood.org.uk