A report released by The World Health Organsiation (WHO) found that four industries including tobacco, alcohol, ultra-processed foods and fossil fuels cause 2.7 million deaths in Europe every year.
In response to this new report Dr Kawther Hashem, campaign lead at Action on Sugar, said: “Without doubt, unhealthy food which contains too much salt, sugar and fat and lacks in fruit, vegetables and fibre is the major cause of death in the world.
“We now live in an environment that makes it impossible to always eat well and food and drink companies contribute to this. The next Government must rethink its public health strategy by controlling the industry much more robustly rather than blaming individuals for their poor health outcomes.
“This will require reducing the huge and unnecessary amount of salt, sugar and fat in processed foods by setting a mandatory reformulation targets that are legally enforceable and, if necessary, apply taxes similar to the Soft Drinks Industry Levy to food categories in order to incentivise the industry to improve their products.”