UK government to announce supermarkets will police what is in your shopping trolley and limit purchases of “unhealthy” food
The UK government has introduced a new policy requiring supermarkets to reduce the calorie content of average shopping baskets by 100 calories as part of a broader 10-year strategy to combat obesity.
By 2029, the Government plans to introduce mandatory reporting by supermarkets on the Government’s “health targets.” Is it just a coincidence that the 2019 ‘Absolute Zero’ report stated that by 2029 human consumption of beef and lamb will decrease by 50%?
The “healthy food standard” initiative, announced by UK Health Secretary Wes Streeting, involves setting mandatory health targets for retailers, who will have the flexibility to meet these goals through methods such as recipe adjustments, price promotions on healthier items or store layout redesigns. Supermarkets that fail to meet these targets could face financial penalties.
Major UK supermarkets Tesco and Sainsbury’s have welcomed the government’s announcement, indicating a willingness to collaborate on implementing it.
But some critics and retail figures have expressed concerns, labelling the plan as “nanny statism” and warning of potential price increases and reduced snack options. Andrew Griffith, the shadow business secretary, criticised the approach, suggesting that Labour’s plan places the nanny state in every supermarket trolley.
Streeting emphasised that the plan is a “world-first approach” and not “nanny statism,” highlighting the collaborative effort with supermarkets rather than heavy regulation.
“Instead of traditional nanny statism, where we regulate more heavily on price or marketing on what’s sold, we’re taking a world-first approach, which is working with supermarkets using data they already collect about the nutritional value of their shopping baskets and shopping trolleys, the average shop,” Streeting told Sky’s Sunday Morning With Trevor Phillips.
However, Streeting’s “working with supermarkets” includes fines. “Shops failing to meet the mandatory targets could face fines, which retail sources warned could see prices rise,” The Telegraph reported. “Senior retail figures said they had been blindsided by the ‘draconian’ plans, which they said would add to a growing glut of red tape on business.”
“The exact target will be agreed in talks with major retailers, but ministers are expected to push for it to be set at around 100 calories per basket – the equivalent of two cubes of butter,” The Telegraph said.
The organisation behind the scheme is Nesta, formerly known as the government-funded National Endowment for Science Technology and the Arts. Nesta analysed 36 million supermarket transactions, finding an average shopping basket health score of 67 out of 100. They set a target to raise this score to 69, which, according to their modelling, they estimate would cut obesity by around a fifth over three years, helping more than three million people achieve a healthier weight.
Nesta suggested that supermarkets will be required to report sales data, and those that fail to hit targets could face financial penalties. The government aims to introduce mandatory reporting by the end of the current parliament in 2029, with the healthy food standard to be fully achieved in the subsequent parliamentary term.
The initiative is part of a broader effort to reduce diet-related diseases and alleviate the financial burden on the NHS. “The government [is] hoping the changes will reduce the need for future tax rises by slashing the £11 billion a year that obesity costs the NHS,” Birmingham Live said. The plan, details of which Streeting will announce this week, also includes collaboration with food manufacturers and retailers to make healthier choices more accessible and appealing to consumers.
Despite how Streeting is marketing the scheme, it’s not about health. Until the Government addresses the safety issues of vaccines and bans vaccines to reduce vaccine-related injuries, we cannot trust any initiative the Government proclaims to be doing for the benefit of the public’s health.
So, what is this really all about? Do you recall the 2019 ‘Absolute Zero’ report by UK Fires? The report lays out plans for all UK airports bar three to be closed by 2029, and beef and lamb banned for human consumption to meet climate scam targets. Consumption of beef and lamb will decrease by 50% between 2020 and 2029, the report declares. Then, between 2030 and 2049, beef and lamb will be “phased out.”
Related:
- UK Local Councils Ignite ‘Climate Emergency’ to Implement Dystopian Control of Public Life
- The Great Meatless Diet Con (Part 1)
What are the chances that the Government’s collaboration with supermarkets and food manufacturers is in preparation to implement the ‘Absolute Zero’ and related plans? Extremely high.
On the one hand, the prohibition of obesity causing foods is to psychologically prepare the public to accept that the Government will dictate what we can and cannot buy through what supermarkets permit us to pay for at the till. An extension of the psychological priming that has been used for years in anti-tobacco campaigns and initiatives.
And on the other hand, to prepare the infrastructure and systems of control; develop, test and implement the system – starting with “unhealthy” food for the collectivist concept of the “greater good,” which in this case is the NHS.
Celeste Solum, who has worked as a contractor for the US Homeland Security and the Federal Emergency Management Agency (“FEMA”), said in 2023 that the ultimate goal relating to controlling our food and calorie intake is more sinister than we can imagine.
On 3 February 2023, DARPA’s Cornucopia programme became operational. The Cornucopia system uses electricity to separate water into usable hydrogen and oxygen and harvests nitrogen and carbon from the air to make large amounts of edible microbes. The aim is to develop not just alternatives to meat and dairy but “a complete diet.”
Cornucopia’s concept is to break down food to its molecular level and substitute nutrition for function. This, they say, is a green-friendly subsistence diet. But the result will be low-nutritional food and we will have to pay high prices for any supplementary vitamins, minerals, fibre or other sources of the health benefits that are found in real food.
If you’re on a minimum wage or universal basic income, you won’t be able to afford the supplements, so it will not be possible to be healthy. “You will starve [from malnourishment] … it’s basically like you are in a concentration camp” unless you can grow your own food, Solum said.
Read more:
- Celeste Solum: Synthetic biology aims to replace natural life forms with something that is man-made
- Bill Gates backs startup to make fake butter from CO2; it could pave the way for food without farming
