Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, with reference to page 58 of the policy paper entitled 10 Year Health Plan for England: fit for the future, published on 3 July 2025, whether Danone's commitment never to introduce a high sugar product to children refers to the recommended levels of sugar for (a) children and (b) adults; and whether this applies to Alpro growing up milks.

The 10-Year Health Plan sets out decisive action to tackle the obesity crisis and ease the strain on the NHS, as well as to create the healthiest generation of children ever. It details a number of actions that the Government will take, including plans to introduce mandatory healthy food sales reporting for all large companies in the food sector, fulfilling commitments to restrict junk food advertising targeted at children, banning the sale of high-caffeine energy drinks to under-16s and updating the UK Nutrient Profile Model (NPM) 2004/05.

Danone’s published commitment is to never produce a product for children that is high in saturated fat, salt or sugar (HFSS) as defined by the UK Government’s current policy and legislation as a less healthy product.

The Government’s policy and legislation being referred to uses the UK NPM 2004/05 to determine whether a product is classed as being HFSS or non-HFSS. The 2004/05 NPM does not assess individual nutrients in isolation (for example sugar), but it considers the balance of the ingredients and the nutrient composition of foods. The scoring system that underpins the UK NPM 2004/05 was based on dietary reference values for children aged 11 to 16 years’ old, but it was subsequently found to be equally applicable to foods and drinks consumed by those over the age of 5 years. The nutritional needs of infants and young children under 5 years differ from those of older children and adults. Therefore. the UK NPM 2004/05 is not currently regarded as suitable to assess commercially available food and drink products that are to be consumed only by children under 5 years, including Alpro Growing Up Milks.