PM should resist pressure from lobby groups
The prime minister should resist pressure from lobby groups to tax sugar and fat, a government insider told FoodManufacture.co.uk this month.
The insider said: “Giving in to lobby groups would cause great hardship and not change people’s habits if you [the government] started to tax food.”
“Food manufacturers have adjusted their [production] methods and levels of sugar and fat are dropping. And they should do what they can to reduce levels even further.”
The source acknowledged mounting pressure from lobby groups on the prime minister and coalition government for a fiscal remedy to the nation’s obesity crisis – estimated to cost the National Health Service alone about £4.2bn a year.