'Dracula in charge of the blood bank': Corporate giants, including McDonald's and Heineken, to assist government in devising public health strategy

% of readers think this story is Fact. Add your two cents.





By Jenny Hope



Last updated at 7:40 PM on 10th December 2010

Invited to the table: Burger giant McDonald’s will assist the government in developing a public health strategy

Fresh fears have been raised over the power of the food lobby after Health Minister Anne Milton was forced to disclose a full list of firms helping to make Britain healthier.

Companies such as Unilever and McDonald’s which will be part of the new public health strategy have met directly with government ministers, it emerged.

Top managers at Diageo – the drinks giant – and Kellogg’s have met with government special advisers, while civil servants at the Department of Health have held talks with Nestle and advertising chiefs.

The full list of those involved in the so-called ‘responsibility deal’ was disclosed in response to a parliamentary question from the shadow education minister Sharon Hodgson.

It comes after publication of a controversial public health White Paper earlier this month which advocates targets to reduce fat and salt are set voluntarily by food firms.

The plan was likened by campaigners to ‘putting Dracula in charge of the blood bank’.

The ‘responsibility deal’ will focus on five areas: food, alcohol, exercise, health at work and changing people’s behaviour.

It will be launched next year with the aim of drawing up voluntary agreements on cutting salt in food and giving consumers more information.

The voluntary ‘responsibility deal’ on curbing alcohol abuse is being drawn up with the help of the spirits manufacturer Diageo and Bacardi Brown Forman, the brewing giants SAB Miller, Molson Coors and Heineken, the largest wine company in the world and beer and spirit producer Constellation.

Supermarkets and indusutry lobby groups such as the Wine and Spirit Trade Association, the British Beer and Pub Association and the Portman Group are also involved while liver disease experts and public interest groups will also be consulted.

READ MORE HERE