Tesco teams up with 3 leading UK health charities to support the nation’s health.
In an open letter to the Health and Social Care Secretary, Tesco and its three leading health charity partners are urging the UK Government to make healthier food sales reporting mandatory for all supermarkets and major food businesses.
At its Health Charity Partnership summit last week, Tesco Group CEO Ken Murphy met with CEOs from Cancer Research UK, British Heart Foundation and Diabetes UK to discuss how they can help people lead longer, healthier lives. With obesity costing the health service around £6.5 billion a year and affecting millions of people across the country, Tesco and its charity partners are calling on the UK Government to implement mandatory healthier food sales reporting, using a set of agreed and consistent health metrics, to improve the health of the nation.
Obesity increases the risk of cancer, heart disease, type 2 diabetes and other conditions, and it is essential that the food industry works together to support the UK Government’s approach to preventing ill health. However, with an inconsistency in how businesses report on the healthiness of their food and drink sales, it is difficult to assess the progress that is being made across the industry.
Food businesses are often at the heart of communities, and have an important role to play in creating, promoting and providing healthy food. Tesco remains committed to taking a leading role to supporting our customers to lead healthier lives and tackling the barriers that they face including affordability, lack of access to healthy food, or a lack of time, knowledge or inspiration when making healthier choices. An increased transparency in healthier food sales reporting can support more evidence-led policy and better-targeted health interventions.
Tesco is on track to meet its 65% healthier sales target by the end of this year, which is being achieved through interventions including voluntarily removing multi-buy promotions on less healthy products and the reformulation of own-brand products to reduce salt, fat and sugar.
Ken Murphy, Tesco Group CEO said:
“There are more people living with obesity in the UK than ever before. Tesco, along with the food industry, has a critical part to play in supporting preventive health measures, through giving access to affordable, healthier, quality food. Through our partnership with Diabetes UK, Cancer Research UK and the British Heart Foundation, we have shown that collaboration can drive meaningful change. But to truly support public health, we need consistent, transparent reporting across the industry. We urge the UK Government to take this important step forward to make healthier food sales reporting mandatory.”
Dr Charmaine Griffiths, Chief Executive of the British Heart Foundation said:
“A healthy, balanced diet is essential to good heart health throughout our lives, and the major supermarkets have a key role in helping people achieve this. The Charity Partnership with Tesco, Cancer Research UK and Diabetes UK is already making a real impact on improving people’s health, but there is more to do.
“There is no doubt that mandatory reporting on healthier food sales will drive improvements across the food industry, and it is great to see a leading retailer like Tesco already transparently sharing their progress.
“We urge governments across the UK to adopt this measure as soon as possible. Doing so would mark a major step forward towards a world in which people’s hearts are healthier, for longer.”
Michelle Mitchell, Cancer Research UK’s chief executive, said:
“Being overweight or obese is the second biggest cause of cancer in the UK, and is linked with 13 different types.
“The world around us can make it difficult to keep a healthy weight. Supermarkets can play a major role in supporting people to make healthy choices, and as Tesco is showing, we need government action to ensure this happens across the UK.
“As well as fully implementing legislation to restrict the advertising and price promotion of unhealthy food and drink, the UK Government must go further by introducing mandatory reporting on healthy food sales. These steps will ensure that everyone can live longer, better lives, free from the fear of cancer.”
Colette Marshall, Chief Executive of Diabetes UK said:
“With the numbers of people living with type 2 diabetes rising in the UK, and millions more at high risk of developing it, bold action is needed to reverse this alarming trend.
“The food industry has a key part to play here, in making healthy, affordable choices accessible to everyone. That’s why this call, with Tesco and our health charity partners, is significant because it would improve transparency and ensure businesses can be held to account.
“The Government’s ambition to ‘shift the dial’ from sickness to prevention can only be achieved if addressing the rise of type 2 diabetes is central to its strategy. It’s a shift that must be driven by public health policies like this one, as well as the junk food marketing ban.”
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