This joint Future Health and Recipe for Change briefing was commissioned by the Recipe for Change campaign to understand and help overcome political barriers to extending reformulation policies to help us achieve the healthiest generation of children ever in the UK.

We have an opportunity to rebalance food environments to make them healthier for our children and build on the impact of measures like the Soft Drinks Industry Levy (SDIL). Future Health Programme Director, Richard Sloggett addresses here the political barriers to overcome in order improve child health and prevent obesity.

The Recipe for Change campaign calls for a new industry levy to help make our food healthier, while raising revenue that can be invested back into children’s health. Such a levy could be applied to all salt and sugar used in manufactured food and catering, or applied to specific product categories only. It has the potential to have wide-ranging health and economic benefits by improving the nation’s health and reducing cases of preventable diet-related disease such as obesity, cardiovascular disease, type 2 diabetes and various cancers.