Food industry must be held accountable for driving rising obesity and ill health

The Fourth High Level Meeting of the General Assembly on the Prevention and Control of Noncommunicable Diseases (NCDs) and the Promotion of Mental Health and Well-Being presents a critical opportunity to draw attention to the harm caused by ultra-processed food corporations shaping our food system.

Aggressive marketing pushes out healthier food options

Around the world, poor quality, addictive ultra-processed products have been aggressively marketed – to the detriment of more bio-diverse traditional foods – resulting in growing obesity levels especially among children and young people. This year, for the first time, the global prevalence of obesity overtook that of underweight children.

Global production and trade of these products exacerbate the root causes of the climate crisis: transport, plastic packaging, intensive agriculture, mono-cropping, deforestation and land-and-sea-grabbing.

Unhealthy diets

From the heavy use of agrotoxics and other chemicals to the aggressive marketing of ultra-processed “food” products (UPFs) and drinks, the industrial food system plays a central role in driving NCDs, such as heart diseases and strokes, obesity, cancer, and diabetes. An estimated quarter of the 43 million deaths attributed to NCDs each year have been linked to unhealthy diets – or in other words, diets high in UPFs promoted by the food industry.

Despite the growing urgency of this public health crisis, a draft political declaration has been negotiated behind closed doors ahead of today’s meeting. This text entirely fails to include a food systems perspective or properly consider the causes of ill-health – including the role played by the food and beverage industry in pushing products that are proven to cause substantial health harm. Instead of introducing safeguards to shield health policies from corporate influence, the declaration encourages industry engagement and thereby may instead obstruct efforts to regulate these harmful products and prevent NCDs. 

Alongside the World Public Health Nutrition Association, IBFAN and other civil society networks and organisations, FIAN calls on governments to incorporate a food systems perspective with strong safeguards to protect human and planetary health.

We insist that the final political declaration agreed today should provide for robust follow-up and accountability procedures that allow for the meaningful participation of public-interest civil society and rights holders. Furthermore, there must be clear and enforceable measures to prevent conflicts of interest and protect against undue influence and interference by the food and beverage industry in NCD-related policymaking at national and UN levels.

For more information, please contact Laura Michéle: Michele@fian.org