Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what discussions his Department has had with coffee companies on reformulating products to reduce their sugar content.

Since March 2017, Public Health England (PHE) has instigated a specific programme of engagement with all of the food industry (retailers and manufacturers) and this has included businesses that provide the food purchased and consumed out of home (such as coffee and sandwich shops). This engagement has focussed on encouraging industry to reformulate products to reduce their sugar content, as part of the wider sugar reduction programme set out in ‘Childhood obesity: a plan for action'. The issues discussed at these meetings have included the expectation that businesses will undertake work to meet the 20% reduction in sugar by 2020, and has covered businesses’ achievements to date and discussion of any technical challenges faced in terms of making current and future changes.

Further discussions will continue to take place over the coming months to ensure that these businesses play their role in helping to reduce sugar consumption. A list of PHE’s industry and other stakeholder engagement on this agenda was published in March and can be viewed here:

www.gov.uk/government/publications/sugar-reduction-and-wider-reformulation-stakeholder-engagement

Further updates on engagement will also be published at regular intervals.