The Obesity Health Alliance were invited to give evidence at the opening session of the House of Lords Inquiry into Food, Diet and Obesity.
Our Director, Katharine Jenner, gave evidence in person at the first oral evidence session on the 8th February 2024, alongside Alliance members Anna Taylor, Fran Bernhardt, Commercial Determinants of Health co-ordinator at Sustain.
Katharine spoke to the following points:
- What are the key barriers to eating a healthy diet?
- What are the most common diet-related health issues, and to what extent do they occur?
- What are ultra-processed foods (UPFs), how widespread are they in diets in England, and how useful is UPF as a definition?
- What are High Fat, Sugar and Salt (HFSS) foods, how are they defined, and how widespread are they in diets in England?
- What is the role and responsibility of the food industry in diet-related poor health outcomes such as obesity in England?
- How effective has Government policy been in tackling diet-related obesity?
- What are the most effective strategies and approaches to tackle diet-related obesity?
You can watch the full session here on Parliament TV and/or read the transcript of the session here. Subsequent sessions, including those from our membership organisations, can be viewed here.
As well as providing verbal testimony, we submitted a written response to the inquiry which you can read here.
For further information, read our Ultra Processed Food in Policy discussion document, here.