Top doctor calls for high tax on salt and sugar
A top doctor has called for higher tax on sugar and salt, accusing the food industry of failing to deliver healthier products.
Doctor Dame Sally Davies has also called for a ban on added sugar in baby milk and price subsidies for healthy products such as fruit, in a move to promote a healthier lifestyle.
In her annual report, Davies said action was needed to combat obesity and diseases that result from a sugary and salty diet, such as type 2 diabetes. These diseases not only negatively affect society but also take their toll on the economy and the NHS.
"The food industry has not done enough," she said. "They were asked by Public Health England to reduce sugar by 20%. We have recently heard that they have not achieved their present target and we know there is too much sugar and salt in our diet.
"The government moved salt into the responsibility deal. Industry have not delivered. We have a system where people are benefiting from selling unhealthy foods and they are not paying for the harm that it is doing," Davies said.
She has urged the industry to do more and pay for the damage or subsidise healthier choices.
Davies recommended extending the tax on sugary drinks to sweetened milk-based drinks, more ambitious targets for salt reduction in food (to 7g a day), saying progress had stalled since 2011. She also recommended incentives to get people eating more fruit and vegetables.
In addition, Davies has called on the government and the NHS to set targets to reduce inequalities in childhood obesity and smoking in pregnancy, which affect poorer regions in particular.
The government recently announced that £3.13bn will be given to councils in England next year for public health initiatives.
"If we get this right we will save 10,000 deaths in the first five years following a cancer diagnosis," Davies said.