Takeaway Britain: 5,800 more open in just three years
JUNK food is taking over our high streets with 5,809 new takeaways opening in just three and a half years, experts have warned.
A major report by the Food Foundation think- tank says that cheap, unhealthy food is driving Britain’s spiralling obesity crisis.
One in every four food retailers is now a takeaway, according to data analysed for the report by Cambridge University.
Experts say some places are becoming ‘swamped in junk food’ – with fast food outlets making up almost 40 per cent of all food retailers in the worst-hit areas.
Between June 2014 and December 2017, the number of takeaway outlets in England rose 11 per cent, from 52,120 to 57,929, data from Ordnance Survey reveals.
The report – backed by campaigners, academics and celebrities, including Jamie Oliver and Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall – calls for urgent and radical action to tackle the crisis.
A third of children and twothirds of adults in Britain are now overweight, contributing to soaring rates of diabetes, heart disease and cancer. Writing in the Daily Mail today, Baroness Rosie Boycott, who is a trustee of the Food Foundation, says that obesity is not simply a ‘failure of personal will’, but the consequence of a system in which ‘the odds are insurmountably stacked against us’.
The poorest 10 per cent of UK households would have to spend three-quarters of their disposable income on food to afford a ‘ healthy diet’, as defined by the Government.
Blackburn, Hyndburn and South Ribble in Lancashire and Harlow in Essex have the highest concentration of takeaway outlets, with close to four in ten of all food retailers selling junk food.
Supermarkets are also geared towards selling fatty, sugary, salty products, with food defined as ‘healthy’ by the Food Standards Agency costing an average of £7.42 per 1,000 calories, compared to £2.42 for 1,000 calories of ‘less healthy’ food. The report suggests that subsidising fruit and vegetables for the poor, extending the soft drinks tax to other sugary foods, discounting business rates for companies selling healthy products, redirecting farming subsidies away from large dairy and livestock companies and towards fruit and vegetable growers, and tightening restrictions on junk food adverts. Pressure is growing for tighter regulations on the food industry. Dame Sally Davies, the Government’s chief medical officer, admitted in December that a series of voluntary agreements had failed, warning: ‘Our sugar targets haven’t been met so far. The same with salt. We need to threaten them with mandation.’
Some areas are already taking matters into their own hands. A ban on all junk food advertising on London’s Tube and buses will be introduced on Monday. And the report’s authors urged others to follow suit, pointing out that 46 per cent of food advertising is for unhealthy food and soft drinks, while only 2.5 per cent promotes fruit and vegetables.
Shirley Cramer, chief executive of the Royal Society for Public Health, said: ‘Measures must be put in place to ensure that all areas of the UK have the same access to high-quality and affordable food.’
A Department of Health spokesman said: ‘With one in three children leaving primary school overweight or obese, we recognise the scale of the challenge and the urgent need to act.
‘That’s why we’ve introduced a world- leading childhood obesity plan and are working with local councils to help them better enforce their powers to create healthier environments – including planning policies to limit the opening of new hot food takeaways close to schools and in areas of over-concentration.’