Food tsar quits over government’s ‘insane’ inaction against obesity

The government’s food tsar, Henry Dimbleby has resigned after claiming the Conservative party has been inactive against tackling obesity.

According to reporting by The Times, the Leon co-founder said the government has an “ultra-free-market ideology” and have refused to place restrictions on the junk-food industry.

Having been the lead non-executive director at the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) for five years, Dimbleby left the role last week.

Subscribe to Grocery Gazette for free

Sign up here to get the latest grocery and food news each morning

He told The Times that the government should use Winston Churchill’s mantra that “talked about the greatest asset a nation can have is the health of its people. He understood that.

“Andy Haldane, the former chief economist of the Bank of England, recently said the biggest problem we have in terms of productivity in this country is illness, and that our workforce is not fit.

“Yet, somehow, this new version of the Tory party thinks that those aren’t things it should be getting involved in, and it’s just insane. It doesn’t make any sense.”

He added that the government’s concern is “that we need to be celebrating the great British diets of fish and chips and curry and beer and that junk food is somehow patriotic.”

In Dimbleby’s national food strategy which saw part two published in 2021, he recommended that salt and sugar sold for use in processed foods, restaurants or catering businesses should be taxed, with revenues raised used to help poorer families with fruit and vegetables.

He also looked to see larger companied having to report on sales of food that are high in fat, salt or sugar (HFSS), however has said that many of his recommedations have not been implemented.

In December, the junk food pre-watershed advert ban was delayed until 2025, after the government pushed back its plans to ban TV advertising for foods high in fat, salt and sugar before 9pm for a second time.