Petition

In March 2016 new dietary guidelines for the UK, called the Eatwell Guide, were issued by Public Health England in association with the Welsh Government, Food Standards Scotland and the Food Standards Agency in Northern Ireland.

The authors of the group who published these guidelines are [1]:

• Alison Nelson, British Dietetic Association. Whose members include Abbott Nutrition, belVita and Danone.
• Karen Tonks, Institute of Grocery Distribution. Whose members include Kelloggs, Mars and PepsiCo.
• Judy Buttriss, British Nutrition Foundation. Whose members include British Sugar, Coca-Cola, Heinz, Kellogg’s, MacDonalds, Mars, Nestlé and PepsiCo.
• Andrea Martinez-Inchausti, British Retail Consortium. Whose members include Burger King, Greggs, KFC and Subway.
• Kate Halliwell, Food & Drink Federation. Whose members include Association of Cereal Food Manufacturers, British Sugar, Cadbury, Coca-Cola, Danone, Haribo and Kellogg’s.
• James Lowman, Association of Convenience Stores. Whose members include Best-One, Londis, Nisa and SPAR.
• Lisa Jackson, Association for Nutrition (AfN). Some founding and honorary fellows of AfN are funded or employed by Unilever, Mars and Coca-Cola.
• Maureen Strong, Agriculture & Horticulture Development Board. Who represent cereal, oilseeds, potatoes, meat and milk sectors.
• Modi Mwatsama, UK Health Forum.
• Helen Donovan, Royal College of Nursing.
• Esther Trenchard-Mabere, Associate Director of Public Health at Tower Hamlets Council.

Looking at this list the question that needs to be asked is why so many committee members had ties to the food industry? Is this not a conflict of interest incompatible with the responsibility to issue independent government dietary advice?

Since the first official dietary guidelines were issued in 1994 obesity has tripled and type 2 diabetes has doubled. With these industry links to the authors of government guidelines is there not a basic conflict of interest in helping people eat far less processed food, leading as that would to lower sales?

We, the undersigned, call for all members of groups involved in issuing dietary guidelines from governmental organisations and departments to be free from conflicts of interest with the food and drink industry.

References

• 1. Harcombe Z. Designed by the food industry for wealth, not health: the ‘Eatwell Guide’. Br. J. Sports Med. 2016 doi: 10.1136/bjsports-2016-096297 [published Online First: Epub Date]. http://bjsm.bmj.com/content/early/2016/05/25/bjsports-2016-096297.full