British public think responsibility lies with parents and schools to encourage healthy eating, rather than the government

The government’s healthy lifestyle campaign was launched by health Minister Andrew Lansley earlier this month, but the public feel that it is not solely the government’s responsibility to encourage healthy eating habits.
 
40% of respondents think that it is mainly the responsibility of parents to teach children healthy eating habits, with 57% believing that the role to educate children about making the right food choices should be shared by both parents and schools.
 
The public think that schools should play a big part in making sure children eat healthily, with 62% of respondents saying that schools should provide a range of food options, including a good proportion of healthy items and 31% saying schools should provide only healthy food options.
 
The government has proposed that food and alcohol companies fund its healthy lifestyle ad campaign, Change4Life, and in return it will not introduce legislation banning excessively unhealthy foods that contain high volumes of fat, sugar or salt. The public seem to have mixed views, with 42% in support of the proposal and 44% opposing the scheme.
 
There is also a mixed response to the proposal of a ‘fat tax’ where a tax similar to that levied on alcohol and tobacco would also be applied for food which has a high fat, salt or sugary content. 52% of respondents disagree with the idea of implementing a food tax and 41% are in agreement of the initiative.
 
However the majority (69%) of respondents agree that food manufacturers should be made to reduce the fat or salt content in their products by government regulation.