Supermarkets could be hit with penalties over junk food sales under new proposals to tackle obesity

MPs have called on the Government to “stand up” to the food industry to tackle Britain’s obesity crisis, which is costing the country tens of billions of dollars each year after decades of inaction.

The Health and Social Care Committee has called for a sweeping overhaul, including a ban on all outdoor advertising of junk food and mandatory labeling on the front of packs.

Its recommendations aim to correct a food environment that is driving consumers towards cheaper, high-fat, sugar and salt (HFSS) products instead of nutritious alternatives.

Key recommendations include mandatory reporting on healthy food sales for supermarkets, with targets backed by penalties for non-compliance.

The committee is also advocating new planning policies to prevent fast food restaurants opening near schools and improvements to the NHS’s Healthy Start cards, which help pregnant women and parents of young children with buying fruit and vegetables.

MPs call on government to be ‘bolder’

MPs have challenged the Government to be “bolder” in the face of industry lobbying against restrictions that mean attempts to tackle obesity through food policy are “consistently failing”.

Layla Moran, Chair of the Health and Social Care Committee, said: “By ‘foodscape’ we mean the constant bombardment of promotions and advertising we see and hear in our daily lives, on our screens, on our children’s journeys home from school, when we set foot in shops and in checkout queues.

“The key message of this report is that we need to tackle Britain’s growing obesity crisis through prevention.

“This means standing up to environmental factors that push people to eat unhealthy diets, forcing struggling families to buy products that feed them without feeding their children.

“This is why the Government’s food policy needs to be overhauled. On the contrary, the worst options are the cheapest, while the healthiest are harder to access.

“Attitudes that obesity is entirely based on individual failings are outdated and deny the reality that those living with obesity and overweight in this country need a serious challenge.”

He added: “We ask this Government to be bold and not to overdo or delay food restrictions.

“While we recognize the costs of policy changes to the food industry, they are marginal compared to the huge costs to society, the economy and healthcare that failure to act on obesity will bring.

“The true cost is measured by how many people suffer from preventable diseases due to overweight or malnutrition.

“The government needs to dig deep and prioritize the long-term health of future generations.”

The impact of obesity on the NHS

According to NHS England, by 2024, 30% of adults in England will be living with obesity, 36% will be overweight and 28% of children aged 13 to 15 were overweight or obese.

Obesity costs the UK £74.3bn a year, according to Frontier Economics research cited by the Department of Health and Social Care; this includes £11.4 billion to the NHS.

Between August 2024 and July 2025, around £680 million was spent on advertising food and non-alcoholic drinks on TV, radio and outdoors.

According to the committee’s report, sweets, chocolates and chips constituted 29% of these expenditures, while fruits and vegetables constituted 3%.

Kate Halliwell, chief scientific officer at the Food and Drink Federation, said: “It is good that the committee recognizes the progress manufacturers have made in reducing salt, sugar and calories and increasing fiber in everyday foods.

“We also appreciate their support for a scheme to help small businesses change recipes to make products healthier. However, we agree that more needs to be done and so we support the committee’s call for the government to introduce plans for mandatory reporting of sales of healthier food.

“But we disagree that food and drink manufacturers should be excluded from health policy discussions.

“The government needs advice from people who produce food to understand whether new policies are workable in practice. This expertise is not available in government departments.”

Last week, ads from major takeaway brands including Domino’s, Papa John’s, KFC and Burger King were given the green light by the Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) despite new regulations targeting less healthy food products.

The ASA acknowledged there was a significant loophole by allowing the ads to continue running, saying “certain products that people understandably assume are less healthy are not actually classed as less healthy under the Government’s Nutrient Profile Model”.

These new rules, which came into force at the beginning of this year, ban the promotion of food products that can be determined to be less healthy on television and on-demand services between 5.30am and 9pm, and in all paid online media.