By F Brinley Bruton
London - Britain is considering imposing levies on fast-food firms to fund sports facilities and combat obesity, the government said on Sunday.
"We are looking at a number of ways of increasing sport in the context of the government's anti-obesity initiative," a department for culture, media and sport spokesperson said.
Governments and food firms have been criticised for failing to combat obesity in Britain and the United States, where as many as two-thirds of the population are considered overweight. In Britain, 47 percent of men and 33 percent of women are overweight and nearly a quarter of both sexes are obese.
A spokesperson for the Food and Drink Federation, whose members include the world's largest confectioner Cadbury Schweppes and soft drinks giant Coca-Cola, said the government had yet to raise the issue of levies.
"Obviously if they were, we would consider it along with other suggestions," she said, adding, "We have written to the government and offered that we should talk more."
If the levies were imposed, funds would be used to build sports facilities around the country, the government spokesperson said, adding: "It remains the case that improving the nation's health and tackling obesity are key government objectives."
According to a May 27 parliamentary report, obesity in Britain has grown by almost 400 percent in the last 25 years and if allowed to continue would surpass smoking as the greatest cause of premature loss of life.
The report predicted increased levels of diabetes, cancer and heart diseases, and attacked the government for failing to formulate policies on obesity that linked food, transport, education, health and work.
Activists in the United States are also trying to hold the food industry to account for the population's expanding waistline. Consumer lobby groups argue that shrewd and costly marketing have influenced US eating habits and contributed to a rising rate of obesity.
In a sign of their concern at growing public scrutiny, top US foodmakers and restaurant chains, from McDonald's to Kraft Foods, have been changing they way they serve meals and reformulating the nutritional contents of some foods.