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Controversy at UN health summit about PepsiCo, McDonald’s involvement

A United Nations Summit on food safety requirements has been met with controversy on in New York this week.

It’s expected that preventable lifestyle and diet-related illnesses, including diabetes, cardiovascular disease and some cancers, will cost nearly $40 trillion in lost productivity and medical bills over the next two decades.

But earlier this month, Australia was calling for changes to the UN food policy on producing and marketing junk food, which were put in place in a bid to tackle Australia’s obesity rate, which is one of the highest in the world.

Australia is joined by Canada and the united States in lobbying to loosen the restrictions, much to the disappointment of health officials.

At the summit, food and beverage giants including PepsiCo and McDonald’s have been controversially been given heavy involvement in the United Nations’ policy.

Philip James, from the International Association for the Study of Obesity told the ABC the debate is akin to arguments about weapons and gun violence.

“If you are trying to stop guns being used, you don’t bring in the gun manufacturers to say what we should do. You decide that you’re going to ban guns – and restrict your access to guns and so on – and then you involve the industry in how they’ll implement it,” he said.

The full report and video is available at the ABC’s Lateline.

Image: The ABC

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