Food industry body admits that voluntary agreements lack punch

Voluntary agreements between the UK government and industry to improve the nation’s diet and curb the rising tide of obesity have reached the end of the road and legislation is needed, says a senior figure of the body that represents the country’s major supermarkets and fast food chains.

Speaking in London on 9 March at the Westminster Food and Nutrition Forum on the next steps for obesity policy, Andrea Martinez-Inchausti, deputy director of food policy at the British Retail Consortium, said that retailers understood that they had a role in improving the nation’s health.

Retailers had done “a lot of work” on product reformulation to reduce salt, fat, …