Liverpool calls for a clampdown on sugary fast food

Liverpool City Council will discuss hidden sugar in fast food at a meeting next week

A tax on fast food with hidden sugar is being considered in Liverpool.

Councillor Richard Kemp named and shamed companies which sell fast food as he called for a sugar tax.

He wants the city solicitor to work with the director of public health to draw up a Parliamentary bill regulating sugar in food.

Councillor Kemp said a Soil Association report highlighted meals available in "Pizza Hut, Frankie and Benny's and Nando's" for excess sugar.

The fast food companies have been contacted by the BBC but have not commented.

Fizzy drinks

Councillor Kemp said the city led the way on the smoking ban and could be pioneering on sugar.

His proposal requests the city solicitor works with the director of public health to draw up a Parliamentary Bill "which would give the council powers to regulate the amount of sugar in foods sold in fast food outlets, restaurants and takeaways".

It also asks the director of public health to work with the Clinical Commissioning Group to promote a health awareness campaign within the city to highlight the real dangers to long-term health of excessive salt and sugar in diets.

Mr Kemp said: "If a child has two fizzy drinks and a fluffy ice-cream pudding they will have consumed seven times the daily recommended sugar".

A sugar tax is being considered in Liverpool by the local authority next week

'People that waddle'

He said the smoking ban in public places began in Liverpool and led to pressure on the government, adding if "we have a city of people that waddle, we will have a city that dies early".

Professor Simon Capewell, from Liverpool University, who founded Action on Sugar, said the campaign needed to target the "affordability, availability and acceptability" of sugar.

McDonald's, although not identified by Councillor Kemp, said it has carried out "extensive work" to evolve its recipes and reduce sugar and salt for "over 30 years" and provides customers with clear nutrition information.