Oliver, who was guest editor of BBC Radio 4’s Today programme on Tuesday, said he was “prioritising the gap between the free school lunch kids and the working poor . . . That’s 800,000 kids that we believe are vulnerable”.

Oliver has previously campaigned on obesity and the quality of children’s food, backing a levy introduced in 2018 on soft drinks with sugar content above a specified threshold. The levy raised £334mn in the financial year 2021-22.

The Department for Education said it understood the pressures many households were under and was supporting more children and young people than ever before.

“Over a third of pupils in England currently receive free school meals in education settings and we have just announced a further investment in the national school breakfast programme, extending the programme for another year backed by up to £30mn,” the department said.

This story originally appeared on: Financial Times - Author:Judith Evans

His fledgling brand Urban Legend, launched a year ago, is going head to head with Krispy Kreme in UK supermarkets as it seeks to persuade hungry consumers to switch to a lower sugar, lower calorie alternative.

His banoffee pie, strawberry cupcake and “Choc Party” confections, made using a patented process that “sets” the dough using steam instead of deep-fat frying, place him among a crop of start-ups looking to displace household-name food brands with healthier options.

This story originally appeared on: Financial Times - Author:Judith Evans

Curbs on multibuy promotions for unhealthy foods are set to begin in England in a year’s time, as part of a series of anti-obesity measures pushed by former prime minister Boris Johnson. Scotland and Wales plan their own versions. Yet Johnson’s government had already delayed the English reforms by a year from 2022 and his shortlived successor Liz Truss floated the idea that they could be scrapped altogether.

As the economy flounders, with particular pressure on low-income households, the measures to reduce promotions and advertising for food high in fat, salt and sugar are easily portrayed as Scrooge-like. A new administration grappling with double-digit inflation may be tempted to roll them back or delay indefinitely. That would be a mistake.

Chocolate is trickier. Attempts to produce lower-sugar chocolate have so far proved almost as shortlived as Liz Truss’s premiership. But regulation will encourage development of healthier packaged foods and push companies to promote them. Excess treats at knockdown prices will not solve a shameful and mounting malnutrition problem.

Government measures to cut the amount of salt in food, combined with the threat of enforcement, dramatically reduced salt in bread in the early 2000s. The shift in taste was too gradual for people’s palates to notice, and research found thousands of lives were saved.

Now, a shift away from junk food is crucial to combating obesity which is already costing the health service an estimated £6.5bn a year and causing escalating human misery. A government reluctant to take “nanny state” measures will find itself on the hook for yet more health costs instead.

As low-income households grapple with a precipitous drop in living standards, a few relatively healthy bargains are the least a new administration can offer them. Food brands may complain, but they are capable of rising to the challenge.

This story originally appeared on: Financial Times - Author:Judith Evans

GSK and Pfizer, partners in the joint venture that was spun out to become Haleon, both previously sold Zantac. Haleon does not sell Zantac in the US, but fears it could be held liable in lawsuits over the drug’s potential links to cancer has driven its share price down, according to James Edwardes Jones, analyst at RBC Capital Markets.

Shares in Haleon have fallen almost 17 per cent since it was listed, trailing the 3.5 per cent drop in the FTSE 100. Its shares were up 1 per cent in morning trading on Tuesday.

This story originally appeared on: Financial Times - Author:Judith Evans