The men who made us fat. Part 3.

Jacques Peretti looks at the current obesity epidemic. This is the third of three programmes; this programme looks at how marketing can seduce consumers into buying supposedly 'healthy foods'. Peretti visits Giles Quick, a director at the consumer knowledge company Kantar World Panel, where they discuss the change in buying habits. Perettii explores how we became more health conscious, starting with the Health of the Nation Report published in 1992 by John Major’s government which came at a time when food sales were already being affected by health issues including salmonella and mad cow disease. Manufacturers wanted to appeal to consumers with products that appeared to be ‘safe’. Sue Dib, co-director of the Food Commission, comments on Sunny Delight, a soft drink released in 1998 and marketed by Proctor and Gamble as ‘healthy’. At the time the government was more concerned with the protection of the food and farming industry that the consumer. The health food gold rush led supermarkets to turn to the organic business, with Sainsbury’s launching over 300 organic products in 1998. Simon Wright, an Organic specialist, was recruited by Sainsbury’s to advise on the organic launch. He identified an unprecedented inversion of the usual supply chain relationships as supermarkets sought small organic suppliers, turning a crisis in the food industry into an extraordinary business opportunity. Wright however argues that supermarkets have no moral obligation to the health of a nation. In 2003 the World Health Organisation published a report entitled 'Diet, Nutrition and the Prevention of Chronic Diseases', which found that heavy marketing of high calorie food to children and the excessive consumption of sugary drinks had a major impact on obesity. A month later, J P Morgan published a report for food industry investors, warning how the government may set regulations that could affect profits. Professor Philip James who was head of the International Obesity Task Force, discusses regulation and the threat it posed to the food industry. Kath Dalmeny who was policy director at the Food Commission during this time comments on the affect the J P Morgan report had on production and marketing of food. She talks about Cadbury's making a deal with the government to sponsor a school sports equipment scheme. To help consumers see beyond the packaging, The Food Standard Agency introduced Guideline Daily Amounts (GDA) which list daily percentages of nutrients. They introduced a colour coded traffic light scheme. Richard Ayre who was on the board of the Food Standard Agency when food labelling was being scrutinised discusses responded. MEP Glenis Willmott discusses how the food industries in Europe reacted negatively. Some companies voluntarily adopted traffic lights and Judith Batchelor, Director of Brands, at Sainsbury’s discusses how they used it to improve their image and how it affected consumers buying habits. Professor Pierre Chandon of The Harvard Business School explores how fattening foods can be marketed as healthy. His ‘health halo’ theory proposes that with the right image consumers assume a product has fewer calories and therefore they eat more. It emerges that the Shadow Health Minister Andrew Lansley was also a paid non-executive director of Profero, a marketing agency, for leading food companies. Whilst preparing Tory policy on obesity he invited contributions from food company giants at meetings held at Unilever. Professor Simon Capewell a leading food expert discusses his involvement in these meetings, and how the relationship between food companies and government played an important role in creating government legislation. The Conservative government under David Cameron created the Public Health Responsibility Deal which invited industry to make voluntary pledges. The aim from is to reduce the UK's daily calorie intake by 5 billion calories. MP Valerie Vaz talks about the fallibility of this obesity fighting strategy. Public health Minister Ann Milton discusses the Government’s attitude to obesity with an onus on the individuals’ behaviour she argues there is no one tool to fight obesity.