Department of Health

  • The campaign for food system targets

    The campaign for food system targets

    Nick Hughes talks to Anna Taylor of The Food Foundation and Charlotte Wright from Elior to discuss the campaign for a Good Food Bill

  • Campaigners slam ‘diabolical’ standard of hospital food

    Campaigners slam ‘diabolical’ standard of hospital food

    Campaigners have reacted angrily to new data that found almost half of NHS hospitals are failing to meet government standards for food. Department of Health data showed that 48% of hospitals are not meeting Government Buying Standards that require hospitals…

  • Foodservice must fight the flab

    Foodservice must fight the flab

    Forget the barriers and the lack of powerful policy, it’s time for action on obesity reports Amy Fetzer. You wouldn’t expect an event about a widely panned policy instrument to have an upbeat, positive vibe, but this week’s Footprint Forum:…

  • Sugar tax – reaction

    Sugar tax – reaction

    Last time round it was the national living wage that caught industry chiefs off-guard. This time the Chancellor’s “surprise” was a tax on sugary drinks. Details are sparse at the moment, but what we do know is that soft drinks companies…

  • In defence of dairy

    In defence of dairy

    Milk alternatives beware: the dairy sector is fighting back. A report published today by the Dairy All-Party Parliamentary Group calls on the Department of Health to introduce a ‘3-a-day’ scheme for milk and dairy consumption. “The UK must put dairy…

  • Responsibility Deal – high costs of failure

    PLANS TO DITCH the public health responsibility deal could cost foodservice firms dear, according to the British Hospitality Association. “Lots of companies have invested a lot of money [in this initiative]. We want to see that investment continue,” said chief…

  • Bad news for bacon

    THE WORLD Health Organisation has classified the consumption of processed red meat as “carcinogenic to humans” and red meat as “probably carcinogenic”.   Experts at WHO’s International Agency for Research on Cancer (IACR) said there was sufficient evidence that eating…

  • Hunt in the firing line on sugar tax

    THE SUGAR tax debate took another twist this week when the heath secretary Jeremy Hunt and NHS officials were accused of suppressing the findings of a scientific review into the controversial policy.   Public Health England – the country’s independent…

  • RIP Responsibility Deal?

    THE GOVERNMENT’S public health responsibility deal is being wound down, according to a report in the Sunday Times. Sources told the paper that the industry continues to work on the voluntary pledges, but there have been no meetings since the…

  • Charlton House makes more salt cuts two years ahead of target

    OVER 1,500 foods hit new salt reduction targets as business delivers on Government Public Health Responsibility Deal Pledge.                       On the first anniversary of its commitment to the Government’s 2017…