Plea for unhealthy food tax to tackle obesity

Dozens of health and children's groups have urged ministers to tackle obesity by imposing taxes on foods containing too much salt or sugar.

- Denis Campbell

New levies based on the sugar tax on soft drinks would make it easier for consumers to eat more healthily by forcing food manufacturers to reformulate their products, they claim.

Their plea comes in a letter from 35 groups to the chancellor, Rachel Reeves, and the health secretary, Wes Streeting. The signatories include groups representing the UK's doctors, dentists and public health directors, health charities including Diabetes UK and the World Cancer Research Fund, and a senior figure in Jamie Oliver's organisation.

The health groups believe taxing "unhealthy foods" such as cakes, sweets, biscuits and crisps would generate billions of pounds for the Treasury and cut the number of people becoming ill as a result of bad diet.

New polling shows that two-thirds of the UK public support taxes on such products as long as the revenue is ploughed into children's health.

The representative survey of 4,943 British adults by YouGov, commissioned by food campaigners' "recipe for change" initiative, also found: 74% think food firms are not honest about the health impact of their products.

61% worry about how much sugar and saturated fat is in what they eat.