Stuck at the traffic lights

Kitchen Rat is heartened to hear that the time for direct action in the hospitality industry has not yet passed.

Tom Allchurch, the man behind healthy fast food chain Fresh Italy, made the pages of Caterer a few years back when he launched a campaign calling for the tax system to be used in the style of tobacco and petrol duty to steer punters towards healthy options.

Allchurch trialled at his own shops linking the Food Standards Agency’s traffic light system - green for healthy, red for the stuff that’s nice but bad for you – to tax, with green items attracting a 0% rate and red items attracting the full 17.5% VAT.

So when he was at a London station recently and spied a familiar face – none other then schools minister Ed Balls – he bowled over and asked the politician straight out: “Do you understand the tax system when it comes to VAT on food?”

The startled minister, clutching his purchase from Upper Crust, conceded that he did not.

Sensing an opportunity, Allchurch made his case for VAT on unhealthy food and tax relief on light bites, which Balls said he’d look into.

However, despite his valiant efforts Allchurch is apparently yet to receive the green light from Government.

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