Food industry fails on targets to slash sugar

THE food industry has failed to reduce sugar levels in products such as biscuits to meet Government targets.

Sugar levels in popular foods including ice cream and chocolate bars were supposed to be cut by 5 per cent over the past year.

But a report yesterday showed firms had reduced levels by only 2 per cent overall – and some foods had actually become sweeter.

MPs said the voluntary policy had ‘failed miserably’.

Firms were told to cut sugar by 5 per cent by 2018 and 20 per cent by 2020, either by making products smaller or changing the ingredients.

The PHE report, published yesterday, indicates that of the 20 biggest selling brands of sweet products in the UK, only 33 per cent had reduced their sugar content.

Another 56 per cent of brands had not changed sugar levels and the remaining 12 per cent had increased them.

Levels of sugar were cut in five out of eight categories – yoghurts, breakfast cereals, sweet spreads, confectionery and ice cream.

But the sugar content in chocolate and biscuits was unchanged and for puddings it increased by an average of 1 per cent. A third of children in the UK and two thirds of adults are obese or overweight.

Professor Linda Bauld, Cancer Research UK’s prevention expert, based at the University of Stirling, said companies needed to be braver to meet targets.

She added: ‘Obesity is the biggest cause of cancer after smoking and is responsible for around 2,200 cases a year in Scotland.

‘To build on sugar reduction, the Scottish Government must forge ahead with a bold obesity strategy that will include laws to restrict supermarket junk food multibuy offers that are contributing to the nation’s obesity problem.’