Health Secretary Andrew Lansley has unveiled the first phase of The Responsibility deal, with more than 170 organisations representing the voluntary sector, business, industry and the retail sector work coming together to tackle the challenges posed by obesity and alcohol misuse.
Government figures show that by 2050, 90% adults will be overweight or obese at current rates, and already today, 27 million adults are not getting the recommended amount of physical activity and almost 9 million of us are drinking too much. Ministers said today that the Responsibility Deal would perform a vital role in the effort to tackle these huge public health challenges and reduce inequalities.
"Public health is everyone's responsibility and there is a role for all of us, working in partnership, to tackle these challenges," said Secretary of State for Health Andrew Lansley
Since September, five groups working on food, alcohol, behavioural change, physical activity and health at work have developed a series of pledges for action.
Supermarkets including ASDA, Co-operative, Morrisons, Marks & Spencer, Sainsbury's, Tesco and Waitrose are among those that have already signed up to a broad range of measures designed to help the public be more healthy.
Food outlets including McDonald's, Pizza Hunt and KFC have pledged to remove trans fats and to introduce calorie labelling.
'We know that regulation is costly, can take years and is often only determined at an EU-wide level anyway," continued the Secretary of State.
"That's why we have to introduce new ways of achieving better results.
"The deals published today, demonstrate the effectiveness of our radical partnership approach to deliver more and sooner."