The inquiry examined:
The Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs issued a call for evidence to inform its National Food Strategy.
The National Food Strategy is intended to be an overarching strategy for government to ensure that the food system delivers safe, healthy, affordable food, is robust in the face of future shocks and is a thriving contributor to urban and rural economies, delivering well paid jobs and supporting innovative producers and manufacturers across the country.
The consultation includes proposals to restrict the location and promotion of ‘discretionary foods’ in retail outlets and other businesses selling to the public. Discretionary foods are defined as confectionery, sweet biscuits, crisps, savoury snacks, cakes, pastries, puddings, and soft drinks with added sugar.
The consultation document proposes a number of location and promotional restrictions for these discretionary foods that will impact on convenience retailers, including:
The Department of Health and Social Care are seeking views on how the government can reduce children’s exposure to advertising for products that are high in fat, salt and sugar (HFSS), to reduce children’s overconsumption of these products.
DHSC want any future advertising restrictions to be focused on HFSS products that are linked to childhood obesity and to encourage brands to make their products healthier.
The Welsh Government is consulting on a draft policy that has 4 main themes:
This consultation asks what you think about:
This consultation also seeks your views on:
The consultation seeks views on updating the food allergen labelling rules for foods which are prepacked for direct sale (PPDS). In particular, which options would work best:
The Scottish Government has launched a consultation on restrictions on the promotion and marketing of “discretionary foods” such as cakes, confectionery and savoury snacks. The consultation proposes that restrictions would be introduced for the location of products in-store, the promotion of value, shelf-edge displays and signage, upselling, and having branded chillers and floor display units. The consultation also proposes to restrict multi-buy price promotions, however, price marked packs would still be allowed.
The Department for Health and Social Care is seeking views on making places that serve food and drink outside of the home show calorie information (calorie labelling). For example, this could include on menus in restaurants, cafes, pubs, coffee shops and takeaways.
The Food Standards Agency has launched a consultation on amendments to the Food Law Code of Practice (Code) for England as part of its Regulating Our Future programme to change the process of food business registration, make changes to the application of the Food Establishment Intervention Rating Scheme, and recognise national inspection strategies.
