Obesity: Concerns are raised over food industry’s influence on government advisory board

Experts have voiced concerns over the significant presence of industry figures on the UK government’s new Food Strategy Advisory Board, after it emerged that 50% of its membership represented food companies and distributors.1

Earlier this year the government announced that the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) would develop a food strategy in response to a House of Lords Food, Diet, and Obesity Committee report that condemned the “utter failure” of successive governments to tackle the country’s obesity crisis. The report called for urgent action including mandatory regulation and for manufacturers of unhealthy food to be excluded from policy talks.2

The composition of the Food Strategy Advisory Board has now been made public (see box), and seven of its 14 members are industry representatives.1

The committee’s chair, Joan Walmsley, who is deputy leader of the Liberal Democrats in the Lords, told The BMJ, “Given that one of our very strong recommendations was that the government should set its food policies independently of food companies . . . and then consult on the implementation of those policies, it is very worrying that when they’re setting their food strategy they’re talking to much of the food industry.”

Other members of the board include Daniel …