UK government’s nutrition advisers are paid by world’s largest food companies, BMJ analysis reveals

Abstract

Campaigners say these conflicts of interest are detrimental to public health, but defenders say they reflect the lack of funding in nutrition research. Sophie Borland reports More than half of the experts on the UK government’s advisory panel on nutrition have links to the food industry, a BMJ analysis has found. At least 11 of the 17 members of the Scientific Advisory Committee on Nutrition (SACN) have conflicts of interest with the likes of Nestlé, sugar manufacturer Tate and Lyle, and the world’s largest ice cream producer, Unilever. SACN is a powerful group of people appointed as independent experts that provides advice to the government—which in turn influences policy. Since its establishment in 2000 it has produced high profile guidelines on daily salt and sugar intake, vitamin D supplements, and feeding babies. But there is concern that both SACN and the previous governments reviewing its recommendations have not done enough to curb rising rates of obesity and food related ill health. Currently, 28.3% of women and 26.9% of men in the UK are obese, up from 13.8% and 10.7%, respectively, three decades ago.1 Deaths from premature heart disease in England are at their highest in 14 years,2 and diabetes cases in the UK are at record levels.3 Campaigners say that these conflicts of interests at the heart of policy making are detrimental to public health. Others say that they reflect the lack of funding for nutrition research and that removing experts with industry links from SACN would “diminish” its expertise. The BMJ looked at the interests declared by members of SACN—in publicly available documents published on the government website—in the past three years.4 Among its members is David Mela, a retired senior scientist from Unilever, who has done consultancy work for the firm that earned him …