PARIS: Food and drink producers are leveraging the coronavirus pandemic to push unhealthy products such as alcohol, sugar-laden soft drinks and fatty fast food on consumers, an international coalition of health charities said Thursday.
Authors of the report, compiled jointly with the University of Edinburgh, accused food and drink behemoths of knowingly exacerbating the impact of Covid-19 on high-risk constituents, including obese individuals and smokers. So-called NCDs such as diabetes, hypertension and lung disease are the world’s biggest killers, leading to 40 million deaths every year.
But there were also numerous signs of the alleged influence of corporate lobbying pushing policy-makers to keep the sale of alcohol, tobacco and fast food even during near-total lockdowns.Likewise, the government in Kenya included tobacco, alcohol and processed food and beverages in its official lists of essential items.