Recommendations from City St George's professor included in new government report

In a new Health and Social Care Committee report contributed to by Professor Christina Vogel, Director of the Centre for Food Policy at City St George's, University of London, MPs have called for a new, bold approach to tackle England’s decades-long obesity epidemic that is costing the country tens of billions a year.

In 2024, 30% of adults in England were living with obesity, and 28% of children aged 13 to 15 were overweight or obese. As a result, the report says that the government must prioritise preventing obesity in future generations over the interests of the food and drink industry, and they have made a number of recommendations to better regulate advertising, promotions and labelling of unhealthy food, as well as making it easier for people to access healthier options, particularly fruit and vegetables.

Proposals in the cross-party Committee’s new report, which references several pieces of research from the Centre for Food Policy, aim to fix a food environment that pushes consumers towards high fat, sugar and salt (HFSS) products, which are typically cheaper than nutritious foods. The Department of Health and Social Care, citing research by Frontier Economics, said obesity costs the UK £74.3 billion per year, including £11.4 billion to the NHS, £8.9 billion to business, £0.4 billion to social care and costs from reduced quality of life of £48.1 billion.

Speaking about the report, Professor Vogel said:

"We are pleased to see the Committee use our research evidence in support of several of their recommendations that can be swiftly implemented by the government to improve the impact of existing healthy food policies. We especially welcome the recommendations to require food businesses to promote fruit and vegetables alongside restrictions on the marketing of foods high in fat, sugar and salt (HFSS), and to provide enforcement officers with sufficient funding, training and stronger fines to enforce these laws effectively.”

The Committee have also urged Ministers to quickly bring in mandatory reporting and targets for supermarkets, backed up with penalties, on the amount of healthy food they sell, and new planning policies to stop fast food outlets opening close to schools.

The report also recommends improvements to the NHS’s successful Healthy Start cards, given to pregnant women and parents of young children to buy fruits and vegetables. Previous research from the Centre for Food Policy and the University of Southampton highlighted the importance of Healthy Start for low-income families, and it outlined several recommendations for local and national governments to improve the effectiveness of the scheme.

In the report, MPs also challenged the government to be more courageous in the face of industry lobbying against restrictions, which has meant that attempts to tackle obesity through food policy have continually failed.

During the inquiry itself, Professor Vogel made a number of points about the UK's food environment, urging the adoption of front-of-pack and menu HFSS warning labels, adequate funding and powers for enforcement officers, and a major boost to fruit and vegetable consumption.

Speaking to MPs, Professor Vogel highlighted the lack of marketing for healthier produce, noting that children are “being brainwashed, almost, by the appeal of unhealthy foods.”

In terms of City St George’s research that was referenced in different areas by the Committee, it includes the following:

The retail environment

Referencing research from the Centre for Food Policy, which found that placing fruit and vegetable sections near supermarket entrances increases the amount sold and may improve the quality of women’s diets, the report recommended that the Food (Promotion and Placement) (England) Regulations 2021 should be updated no later than January 2027. MPs said that the update should include a requirement to place fruit and vegetables in prominent instore locations like checkouts and store entrances, and extend the definition of a prominent location on a website to include 'special offers' pages.

Front-of-pack labelling

Professor Vogel told MPs about the need for a clear, front-of-pack, front-of-menu HFSS label that applies to all foods in all settings. The report subsequently recommends that the government should introduce mandatory front-of-pack labelling by January 2028. Whilst imperfect, the report says that the traffic light system is familiar to customers and already widely used by producers, meaning full implementation should be swift.

Other areas of the report also made recommendations around advertising in the retail environment, healthy sales reporting, planning policy, NHS Healthy Start cards, and industry influence.

Professor Vogel added:

“We commend the Committee's call for a more joined-up approach to healthy food policy and to restrict the involvement of businesses selling large quantities of unhealthy food and their representatives from direct involvement in policy making. The recommendation to extend the age limit and eligibility criteria of the Healthy Start scheme is particularly important. It would remove the gap between Healthy Start and Free School Meals, helping to make healthy foods more affordable and accessible for children.

“We would have liked to see the Committee go further by recommending front-of-pack and menu warning labels for HFSS foods and drinks, and by requiring reporting on the proportion of HFSS products and fruit and vegetable sales within the upcoming healthy food sales reporting policy. However, we welcome the Committee's call for the immediate introduction of the updated nutrient profiling model used to define HFSS products and look forward to swift government action on this and the report's other recommendations.”

This report comes from the Committee’s food and weight management inquiry. A second report, focusing on weight treatment and medication, will be published later this year.