Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what assessment he has made of trends in the consumption of foods that are designated high in fat, salt or sugar over the last 18 months.

Public Health England monitors the diet and nutritional status of the population through the National Diet and Nutrition Survey (NDNS). The NDNS reports on the contribution of different food groups to consumption of fat, salt and sugar. For foods designated high in fat, sugar or salt, trend data is only available for certain high sugar foods. For children and adults aged 19-64 years old, data shows a reduction in the average consumption of sugar-sweetened soft drinks between 2014-2016 and 2016-2019 but no statistically significant changes for sugar or chocolate confectionery over this period. The most recent report was published in December 2020 and is available at the following link:

https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/ndns-results-from-years-9-to-11-2016-to-2017-and-2018-to-2019