Public health experts believe cutting the calorie count of a daily diet by just 50 calories would lift 340,000 children and two million adults out of obesity. If everyone who is overweight reduced their calorie intake by just 216 calories a day, equivalent to a single bottle of fizzy drink, obesity would be halved.
Claire Ogley, head of campaigns, policy and research at The Vegan Society, commented: "We're delighted to see the Government implementing a measure for which we and others have been calling for some time.
“We urgently need measures to drive up the consumption of fruit, vegetables, legumes, wholegrains and other healthy plant-based foods in this country. Requiring food businesses to report on proportions of these foods sold and to incentivise increasing the proportion of plant-based proteins sold will be a great first step.
“However, we need a more dramatic shift to plant-rich diets than this relatively light touch approach indicates. Our diet is bad for us, bad for the planet, and very bad for the billion animals who are killed for food in this country each year. Our research shows that a transition to plant-based diets could save the NHS more than £6.7 billion per year.
"The Government can and must take further sensible, pragmatic action to make plant-based foods accessible, affordable and attractive to people, including by providing practical education for the general public about growing, preparing and cooking fruit, vegetables, pulses and wholegrains, by running integrated and holistic public health campaigns to promote fruit and vegetable consumption and by supporting farmers to make the transition to sustainable plant-based agriculture."
Obesity is one of the root causes of diabetes, heart disease and cancer. With the UK now having the third highest rate of adult obesity in Europe, it remains a critical public health challenge, costing the NHS £11.4 billion a year, three times the NHS budget for ambulance services.
Anna Taylor, executive director of The Food Foundation, added: "The introduction of mandatory reporting by all large food companies, including takeaway chains, on the healthiness of their food sales is a game changer.
"This simple act of transparency delivers the opportunity for systemic change - informing better policy design and triggering boardroom conversations. The data will also clearly reveal to consumers which businesses are on their side and making healthy choices easy, and which are making it actively harder for them to eat well. The faster this is introduced, the better."