BAKED beans and fish fingers should be taxed to help fight obesity, a telly doctor reckons.
Anti-junk food campaigner Prof Chris van Tulleken also wants warning labels on unhealthy products.
The BBC expert yesterday told MPs the Treasury should target the sale of fattening foods.
Appearing before a Commons health committee, Prof Van Tulleken put a loaf of brown bread, baked beans, fish fingers and Coco Pops cereal on the table and insisted they should be “taxed appropriately”.
He said they were examples of ultra-processed foods which were “cleverly engineered” to make people buy and eat more.
Baked beans go through factory processing and contain modified flour and spices.
Prof Van Tulleken said: “This is our national diet.
“You will definitely eat too many calories if you eat this kind of food.
“All of this says it’s healthy — there is no warning label.
“The suite of policies you need is fairly straightforward — warning labels, progressive taxation, strict marketing restrictions.”
Prof Van Tulleken, who hosted CBBC’s Operation Ouch series on the human body, argued food levies similar to the 2018 sugar tax on drinks would encourage people to buy more healthy fruit and veg.
But MP Alex McIntyre pointed out there have been 14 strategies and 689 government policies on obesity since 1992.
And Dr Chris Snowdon, of the Institute of Economic Affairs, said: “The Government has nothing to learn from a children’s telly presenter who appears to be living on a different planet.”
NHS figures show the obesity rate doubled from 15 per cent in 1993 to 29 per cent in 2022.
