Food giants warned: Cut sugar now or you’ll cause thousands more deaths

FOOD giants will be responsible for thousands of needless cases of diabetes, heart disease and bowel cancer if they fail to hit the Government’s sugar reduction targets, research suggests.

Oxford University academics calculated that the scheme, which aims to cut sugar by a fifth in cereals, yogurts and sweet treats, will significantly cut obesity and reduce hundreds of thousands of cases of disease if it is successful.

But they warned that initial progress has been poor and the industry is already falling behind on the targets.

A third of children and two thirds of adults in Britain are now overweight, making the UK one of the fattest nations in Europe.

Food campaigners last night called for the voluntary sugar reduction scheme – a key part of the Government’s childhood obesity strategy – to be made mandatory if it is ever going to succeed. Prime Minister Theresa

‘Not even halfway to the target’

May introduced the strategy in 2016 and called for companies to ‘reformulate’ their products to reduce sugar by 20 per cent by 2020.

She also called for a reduction in portion size and a shift in sales from high- sugar products to low- sugar alternatives.

Even at the time she was accused of ‘caving in’ to the junk food lobby by failing to make the voluntary request into a strict rule.

But demands for tougher action intensified last year when it emerged average sugar content had fallen by just 2 per cent in the first year – not even halfway to the 5 per cent yearone ambition.

In December, Dame Sally Davies, the Government’s chief medical officer, admitted the arrangements had failed to sufficiently reduce sugar and called for further action.

‘Our sugar targets haven’t been met so far,’ she said.

‘The same with salt. We need to threaten them with mandating it.’

The study, published last night in the British Medical Journal, lays bare the consequences if food companies continue to fail to cut sugar.

The Oxford researchers calculated that if the targets are met, it would cut obesity by 5.5 per cent, lead to 155,000 fewer cases of type 2 diabetes, 3,500 fewer heart disease cases and 5,800 fewer cases of bowel cancer in a decade. In children it would cut obesity by 5.5 per cent among four to ten-year- olds and by 2.2 per cent among 11 to 18-year-olds.

Calorie intakes could be cut by 25 calories a day for children and 19 calories a day for adults.

And it would save the NHS £286million over ten years.

But the team wrote: ‘For this to happen, the programme’s goals need to be met in their entirety, and without its introduction leading to unintended changes in consumer or industry behaviour.

‘Early evidence indicates that industry has not met the ambitious target of achieving a quarter of the total reduction in the first year of the programme.’ They added that the failure of even part of the scheme ‘could lead to substantial benefits being lost’.

Tam Fry of the National Obesity Forum said last night: ‘Only some 2 per cent of the 20 per cent target has been achieved and 2020 is but eight months away.

‘The UK will need a raft of fiscal measures and hard regulation if we are to see any significant reduction in childhood obesity.’

But Tim Rycroft, of the Food And Drink Federation, said: ‘We have long said Public Health England’s sugar reduction guidelines and timeframes are ambitious and won’t be met across all categories.

‘Despite this, members have been fully engaged with the programme and have been working hard to reduce sugars in products, where possible. Companies are working through considerable technical challenges.

‘As PHE have themselves pointed out, reformulation takes time – it can’t happen overnight.’