The UK’s 10-year Health Plan: Challenges and opportunities for F&B

The UK government has set out its 10-year Health Plan which will restrict junk food advertising targeted at children, ban the sale of high-caffeine energy drinks to under 16-year-olds, reform the soft drinks industry levy to drive reformulation, and introduce mandatory health food sales reporting for all large companies in the food sector.

The reporting will be used to set new mandatory targets on the average healthiness of sales, and is hailed as a “world-first” initiative. 

Alcoholic drinks will have to display consistent nutritional information and health warnings, while the no-alcohol and low-alcohol market will be encouraged.

The government’s 10-Year Health Plan for England: Fit for the Future is essentially a radical overhaul of the country’s NHS and includes an extended focus on the food industry, food reformulation, and how retailers can help shape the health of Britain’s population. 

It comes after voluntary efforts have consistently failed to deliver the scale of change needed. It has been met with a positive reaction from health experts and food organizations across the UK. They welcome the plans but urge the Government to act “swiftly and decisively.” 

F&B reformulation

The initiative is expected to drive fundamental improvements in the nutritional quality of many products by holding manufacturers accountable and encouraging reformulation.

As the plan highlights, product reformulation is one of the levers that can be deployed to help achieve healthier food sales. The International Sweeteners Association fully supports this and believes that low/no-calorie sweeteners can continue to play a crucial role in enabling this shift. 

It emphasizes some key data points about low/no-calorie sweeteners. This includes outlining their “essential role,” including reducing excessive sugar consumption and helping manufacturers to support public health objectives by developing foods and drinks with less energy and less sugar, to play in assisting the Government to deliver on this ambition. 

Over the past three decades, obesity rates have doubled, making it a leading cause of cancer, cardiovascular disease, and type 2 diabetes in the UK. Nearly one in five children leaves primary school with obesity. 

The UK government's Health Plan will ban the sale of high-caffeine energy drinks to under 16-year-olds.

Ban on energy drinks for children

The proposal to ban the sale of energy drinks loaded with caffeine and sugar to children is expected to cover drinks with more than 150 mg of caffeine per liter.

Sonia Pombo, head of impact and research at Action on Salt, based at Queen Mary University of London, says: “We are pleased to see the Government recommit to a ban on energy drinks for children and the introduction of nutrition labeling for alcoholic beverages; these are both important steps toward a healthier food and drink environment.”

“We wholeheartedly support the Government’s recognition of the powerful role food and drink businesses play in shaping the nation’s health. To deliver meaningful change, we need urgent action, led by evidence rather than industry interests. Excess salt and sugar consumption are major contributors to non-communicable diseases like cancer, cardiovascular disease, and type 2 diabetes — all of which are largely preventable.”

Alcohol labeling

The objective is that mandatory labelling and sugar content will help consumers make informed, healthier choices and push manufacturers to reformulate products with less sugar, calories, and alcohol. 

Addressing the plans to include labeling on alcoholic drinks, Zoe Davies, a nutritionist at Action on Sugar based at Queen Mary University of London says: “Sugary alcoholic drinks pose a double threat to public health, combining the harms of alcohol with those of excess sugar, which fuels tooth decay, obesity, and type 2 diabetes.”

“It is a scandal that these drinks have escaped both the sugar tax and coherent nutritional labelling, simply because they contain alcohol.”

 “The government’s commitment to mandatory, consistent labeling of alcoholic drinks is a crucial step forward. Consumers have the right to know exactly what they are drinking — far more than they currently do, given that shoppers get less information about alcohol than about milk or orange juice. This disparity is outrageous and unfair.” 

 Under the new plans, the NHS will facilitate more access to weight loss jabs, and people will be encouraged to become healthier through a new “health reward scheme”, but the exact details are not yet known.