It will introduce mandatory data reporting on the healthiness of food sales for all large food businesses and set mandatory targets for improvement. This policy was inspired by a Nesta proposal on health targets for supermarkets.

Policies that improve the average healthiness of all food sold, like the healthy food standard, will reach children directly by raising the quality of what they and their guardians buy.

This brief details why policymakers should focus action on the grocery retail sector to improve children’s health, given new analysis showing that health targets for supermarkets could have a significant impact on childhood obesity.

The brief details the expected impact that the healthy food standard could have on childhood obesity.

• Summary: An overview of how mandatory health targets for supermarkets could operate, how the policy design minimises business disruption and keeps the cost of food down, and why targeting the food children consume outside of school is critical.
• Key findings and implications: Results show that achieving the recommended health target could significantly reduce childhood obesity levels by around 23%, translating to 400,000 fewer children living with obesity within 5 years of targets being met.
• Analysis and method: A detailed breakdown of the methodology used to model the policy's impact, including calorie reduction estimates adjusted for the age and gender of children.

The healthy food standard is the most impactful policy on the table for reducing obesity, but time is running out to deliver it within this Parliament. Our key recommendations to the government are outlined below.

• Publish a formal consultation before the summer recess - with a commitment to implement mandatory health reporting next year across all relevant sectors.
• Implement the healthy food standard in full - including both mandatory reporting and mandatory health targets – within this Parliament.