Retailers and suppliers can expect a furious reaction from the health lobby

Common sense is rarely a term used in relation to government departments.

However, it does appear to apply to the compromise cut by the Department of Health to encourage the food industry to take part in the next stage of its Responsibility Deal.

While the rest of us were trying to work off too much Christmas turkey, negotiations were underway to save a deal that looked to be under threat.

Andrew Lansley’s plans to slash five billion calories a day from the national diet left many food suppliers dangerously isolated and either facing reformulating their products, at a potentially dire cost to sales, or being cold shouldered.

The government is right in thinking the quickest way to tackle the obesity crisis is with the broadest possible support from the industry. Of course, retailers and suppliers can expect a furious reaction from the health lobby.

Lansley’s obesity strategy has already been widely castigated by the likes of the British Medical Association. But isn’t it better to engage the industry than to be at loggerheads based on draconian proposals that simply wouldn’t work?