Government must ‘stand up to the food industry’ to tackle obesity epidemic – MPs

The Government must “stand up” to the food industry after decades of failure to tackle obesity that is costing the country tens of billions a year, MPs have said.

All outdoor advertising of junk food should be banned and front-of-pack labelling should be mandatory to tackle England’s obesity epidemic, the Health and Social Care Committee said.

It said its proposals, which include mandatory reporting and targets for supermarkets, backed up with penalties, on the amount of healthy food they sell, aimed to fix a food environment that pushes consumers towards high fat, sugar and salt (HFSS) products, which are typically cheaper than nutritious food.

The proposals include new planning policies to stop fast food outlets opening close to schools, and improvements to the NHS’s Healthy Start cards, given to pregnant women and parents of young children to buy fruit and vegetables.

MPs challenged the Government to be “more courageous” in the face of industry lobbying against restrictions, which had meant that attempts to tackle obesity through food policy “have continually failed”.

Health and Social Care Committee chairwoman Layla Moran said: “When we say the ‘food environment’, we mean the constant bombardment of promotions and adverts we see and hear in our daily lives – on our screens, on children’s journeys home from school, as we set foot in shops and queue for the checkout.

“The central message of this report is that we need to tackle England’s escalating obesity crisis through prevention.

Published: 15/07/2026 by Radio NewsHub