Category: News Item

In the March newsletter we asked the Environmental Health community how they were responding to the Coronavirus pandemic and to share any best practice, the following have got in touch and responding with how their work has adapted.

Glasgow City Council

Environmental Health has been identified as an essential service in dealing with coronavirus pandemic and staff from other areas have been drafted in. Billy Hamilton has returned from retirement for 2 days per week to help with Glasgow City Council (GCC) response to the pandemic. Most officers have been working from home and food inspections have been suspended unless there is a potential serious health risk. There have been a few key areas of work undertaken in response to the COVID- 19 pandemic by Environmental Health at Glasgow City Council as follows:

• Covid-19 Cross Infection Surveys- this has involved volunteer Environmental health officers going to key department locations to identify cross- infection “hotspots” and make recommendations and to report back to management.  This has been carried out using necessary precautions to ensure social distancing measures are being applied and that relevant PPE was used. This task was undertaken from a public health perspective and not in a health and safety at work context.
• Procurement Prioritisation. GCC Corporate Procurement, Corporate Health and Safety and Environmental Health have developed a streamlined, centralised procurement process for Covid-related PPE requests across the Council. Environmental Health staff apply a prioritisation tool in order to triage incoming requests.
• Tracing of cases and suspected cases. Environmental Health has prepared materials and guidance to enable staff to contact Service colleagues who have declared themselves to be suffering from coronavirus (or to at least have symptoms). A questionnaire has been developed which would be completed while interviewing the ‘case’ over the phone or by email. Information will be collected on the person’s working location and upon any colleagues within which they’ve been in contact over the past 7 days. (This won’t be required if the person has been working from home during this period). Details of the specified contacts will be recorded and those ‘contacts’ then contacted by the ‘relevant case officer’ who contacted the actual case/suspected case.
• Mass Fatalities Resilience. This has been led by Registration, Emergency Planning and Bereavement services however Environmental Health has a role in this area and will involve carrying out daily inspections at the temporary mortuary along with Renfrewshire Council colleagues.
• Coronavirus Regulations. The recently-produced Regulations empower Local Authorities to take enforcement action where businesses are found to be trading unlawfully. Both Environmental Health and Trading Standards staff have been deployed to respond to enquiries and allegations from the public and Police.
• Communications. There is an ongoing need to maintain Covid-related communications with businesses and Council colleagues. Work has included updating website information, creating social media content, creating information posters for depots and other locations, contacting food businesses with information regarding measures to take for takeaways, and contacting care homes to ensure correct waste control measures are in place.

Fife Council

Environmental Health Teams in Fife were identified as business critical, both in terms of the COVID-19 Pandemic response and the day to day public health functions undertaken by the Teams.

Officers are working mainly from home, with routine inspections and interventions suspended at this time. Visits and inspection can only be carried out where there is a significant risk to public health, safety and wellbeing, with Officers first obtaining permission from their Line Manager.

Fife Council’s Environmental Health have and continue to play their part in the response to the Covid-19 Pandemic in the Kingdom, including:  

• Active involvement in Fife Council’s corporate response and are represented on the Corporate and Directorate level Incident Management Teams.
• Are members of the STAC (Scientific Technical Advisory Cell) supporting the work of both Fife Council’s and NHS Fife Incident Management Teams.
• An integral part of the Mass Fatalities preparation work and will have a key role going forward.
• Port Health work continues along with liaison with City of Edinburgh Council Environmental Health colleagues. As the Firth of Forth is providing moorage to five cruise ships (at current count), with servicing of the ships being undertaken at local ports. 
• Provision of information and guidance to businesses through Fife Council’s dedicated Covid-19 webpages.
• Proactive (non-visit) interventions of food business currently trading and those who have or could adapt to collection/delivery service.  This covers a range of food safety practices including for examples cross contamination and allergen management, along with social distancing measures.
• Responding to requests for advice and concerns from other council departments, Businesses, the voluntary sector, partner agencies and members of the public.
• Working with our Trading Standards colleagues of as relevant persons under the Health Protection (Coronavirus) (Restrictions) (Scotland) Regulation 2020. Liaison with our local Division of Police Scotland is also underway.

Aberdeenshire Council

Being a rural authority with officers usually spread over a variety of 7 offices and home locations, the move to everyone working from home has been reasonably smooth given the existing familiarity with the technology required to support remote working. We had to make the best use of the technology to bid our farewells to a well known friend and colleague John Bell, Lead Food Officer and Examiner who retired on Tuesday 31^st March, the promise of an Indian Buffet remains for when restrictions are to be lifted. In the meantime, we have been kept busy: 

Our team were quick off the mark producing guidance for business who were having to adapt their food offering to deliver/ collection only, we got this guidance on to our social media channels and linked to special COVID advice pages on our website. We continue to review and update our web pages on a daily basis to reflect the changing landscape for residents and business as best as possible. 

A diving support vessel arrived at Peterhead on the 27th March. On board and amongst a crew of 101 were individuals reporting symptoms associated with Covid-19. These crew members were in isolation as per government "household" guidelines. The vessel was directed to a secure berth in Peterhead Harbour and directions given that no crew member leave the vessel and that no 3rd party could board without the permission on Aberdeenshire Council (as Port Health Authority) and Public Health Scotland. An informal "incident team" was formed comprising representatives from Aberdeenshire Council, the Acting Consultant in Public Health from NHS Grampian, and the operator (both onshore and on board the vessel).The Council served a Notice under Section 73 (3)(a) of the Public Health (Scotland) Act 2008 on the owners and operators of the vessel. The Notice contained conditions aimed at preventing the spread of infectious disease from the ship. After careful monitoring of the health status of individual crew members in the following days disembarkation was permitted when deemed appropriate by the incident team. The vessel was then deep cleaned before a fresh crew returned it to service.

With our Household Waste Recycling Centres closed, people have been unable to dispose of their garden waste and some unfortunately have taken to having garden bonfires. We have seen a gradual rise on complaints compared to the same period last year, a trend that will likely be mirrored across other Authorities. To combat any further increase in complaints, we have taken to social media, in conjunction with our Waste colleagues, to encourage people to home compost any garden waste and refrain from burning. 

Although based from home our Animal Health & Welfare Officers are still responding to concerns and visiting small holdings, farms and livestock markets. Stray dogs and dog fouling don’t stop during a pandemic! It has been disappointing to hear of the number of incidents of bagged poo being left on our paths, especially when our 1 hour a day to enjoy the outdoors is confined to these paths. 

As if a global pandemic wasn’t enough to get our heads around, we convened an IMT just over a fortnight ago when we received confirmation from SEPA and the DWQR that Aberdeenshire was at an increased risk of drought and our private water supplies may begin to experience difficulty within the next 2 to 4 weeks. The Cabinet Secretary has confirmed financial assistance will be made available and we currently hold a stockpile of Scottish Water bottled water that I expect we will begin to distribute in the coming days. 

In this fast-moving time, there is real opportunity for our profession to demonstrate more than ever why we are at the core of public health within Scotland. 

East Lothian Council

East Lothian Council have authorised Environmental Health and Trading Standards Officers under the Coronavirus Regulations. Each Officer has been assigned responsibility for premises social distancing monitoring within a specific part of the County. We have adopted the four E’s approach – engage, explain, encourage and enforce.

The team devised some guidance material to assist businesses operating during these times such as food deliveries, commercial dog walkers and pool plant operators. We have also handed signage to businesses. Feedback from businesses has been very positive and appreciative. There has also been good general adoption of social distancing measures by the public.

We have received an increased number of public health nuisance complaints, most likely due to restrictions keeping people at home. Particular problems include an increase in fly tipping, domestic bonfires, an increase in sightings of rats during the day due to lack of their normal food source and also noise complaints.

We have also participated in East Lothian Council’s inter-departmental Mass Fatalities Working Group to ensure that a plan and protocol/procedure was put in place for temporary body storage provision should this be required. 

A few matters raised for address following lockdown include caravan site occupancy. At least one of our holiday licensed sites appears, unawares to the site owner, to have residents with no other formal address.

West Lothian Council

West Lothian Council’s environmental health team are working from home at the current time. The pandemic, and government advice on controlling its spread, have made significant changes to the way we work. The team remain focussed on carrying out essential work in relation to public health protection and enforcement of emergency legislation.

The most obvious change in our work load is enforcement of the relevant parts of the Health Protection (Coronavirus) (Restrictions) (Scotland) Regulations 2020 where we have had good engagement with the public and businesses.

We are working with NHS Lothian and partner environmental health departments to prepare for any assistance we can give with coronavirus contact tracing strategies.

Our commercial team are proactively contacting food businesses which may be open at the moment to reinforce essential food safety procedures and to discuss controls in place to prevent Coronavirus transmission amongst staff and customers.

We are continuing to handle reactive work such as RIDDOR notifications, food complaints, business advice requests, communicable disease investigations and production of food export certificates.

Public Health and Environmental Protection workload continues at substantial, but 6% reduced levels relative to mid-March – mid April 2019.

An increased proportion of work relates to refuse accumulations and burning of garden and household waste. There has been an increase in domestic bonfires for a number of reasons:

• Additional household rubbish being generated (~20%) due to eating etc at home which would normally take place elsewhere;
• Good weather during lockdown providing residents time to tidy gardens, but unable to dispose of excess waste whilst the Community recycling centres are closed;
• Lockdown providing residents time to carry out DIY, but unable to dispose of excess waste whilst the Community recycling centres are closed; and
• Some small traders who had continued to surreptitiously use the Community Recycling Centres for business waste have had this option removed.

West Lothian retains a full normal household waste collection service during the Covid-19 Pandemic. There is therefore no shortage of capacity for routine household waste, particularly if householders do all they can to segregate out recycling for disposal in the blue bin and garden and food waste to the brown bin.

We have also emphasised the need to minimise burning / carry out responsible burning using social media.

Please keep in touch and let us know how you are getting on during this pandemic and how your work is adapting to the COVID 19 pandemic. 

It will be great to share any best practice with the Environmental Health community in Scotland and recognise those who are going above beyond. 

The feedback will be published in April's Newsletter at the end of the month.

Please email sg@.

This decision has been taken by representatives of the COP Bureau of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), with the UK and its Italian partners.

Dates for a rescheduled conference in 2021, hosted in Glasgow by the UK in partnership with Italy, will be set out in due course following further discussion with parties.

In light of the ongoing, worldwide effects of COVID-19, holding an ambitious, inclusive COP26 in November 2020 is no longer possible.

Rescheduling will ensure all parties can focus on the issues to be discussed at this vital conference and allow more time for the necessary preparations to take place. We will continue to work with all involved to increase climate ambition, build resilience and lower emissions.

COP26 President-Designate and Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy Alok Sharma said:

“The world is currently facing an unprecedented global challenge and countries are rightly focusing their efforts on saving lives and fighting COVID-19. That is why we have decided to reschedule COP26.

We will continue working tirelessly with our partners to deliver the ambition needed to tackle the climate crisis and I look forward to agreeing a new date for the conference.”

UN Climate Change Executive Secretary Patricia Espinosa said:

“COVID-19 is the most urgent threat facing humanity today, but we cannot forget that climate change is the biggest threat facing humanity over the long term.

Soon, economies will restart. This is a chance for nations to recover better, to include the most vulnerable in those plans, and a chance to shape the 21st century economy in ways that are clean, green, healthy, just, safe and more resilient.

In the meantime, we continue to support and to urge nations to significantly boost climate ambition in line with the Paris Agreement.”

In light of recent events with COVID-19, Global Action Plan who run Clean Air Day have made the difficult decision to postpone Clean Air Day 2020 to 8 October.

The success of our Clean Air Day campaign relies heavily on multiple organisations and communities coming together to demonstrate the difference we can all make to the air that we breathe. Whilst many activities can be undertaken digitally, the number one priority is the health and wellbeing of the UK public so postponing is the safest option.

The 8 October has been selected as the new Clean Air Day for 2020 when it is hoped mass gatherings can resume. This will give enough time for Global Action Plan to team up with schools, workplaces and local communities once everyone is back up and running.

The new date will bring new opportunities such as building on Car Free Day on 22 September and working in tandem with Walk to School Month in October. This time of year, will also allow extension to the campaign to new areas such as domestic burning and indoor air quality as well as continuing to build on the core campaign theme around leaving the car at home.

REHIS look forward to supporting Clean Air Day 2020 on 8 October.

REHIS past president, Bernard Forteath has brought to our attention the coronavirus coverage from The South China Morning Post (SCMP). 

They have been providing very comprehensive coverage on coronavirus, since Chinese officials first reported cases of the novel coronavirus to the World Health Organisation on 31 December and were also one of the first English-language publications to report to do so. 

Since that day, they have been chronicling in detail on its website how the COVID-19 pandemic profoundly changed and disrupted the world. The microsite offers a daily rundown of essential stories, including explainers, infographics and FAQs. 

Since that first story in December, SCMP has uncovered many crucial truths about the virus and its spread, elevating thought and understanding amongst our readers around the globe. These stories include: 

• an exclusive tracing of the first recorded case of COVID-19 as far back as November 17
• a scoop from classified Chinese data that revealed one-third of coronavirus cases may be “silent carriers”, and a follow-up story on China's reversal of policies that previously excluded asymptomatic cases from official numbers
• an early explainer using the World Health Organisation’s prediction in 2018 about ‘Disease X’s’ arrival to provide insights on how COVID-19 descended on Wuhan 
• China’s mask-making dominance and its potential of sparking a new geopolitical storm because of the world’s over-reliance on Chinese manufacturing
• an inside look during Wuhan’s lockdown, as well as this week’s focus on the city’s cautious approach to the end of its containment

In addition, their CEO Gary Liu provided an overview on China’s response to the coronavirus with TED and the Aspen Institute, and their editorial team co-produced Facebook’s “Covid Frontline”, a cross-newsroom collaboration with Australia’s 7NEWS and The Straits Times in Singapore. This special program shed light on the global coronavirus battle through frontline reporting and interviews with prominent medical experts, including a WHO advisor and preeminent COVID-19 researcher.  

You can sign up to SCMP updates here.

The Guardian newspaper has produced an interesting article on a missed opportunity for coronavirus contact tracing being carried out by Environmental Health Officers. 

As you know, Environmental health workers in local government have wide experience in contact tracing, a process used to prevent infections spreading and routinely carried out in outbreaks such as of norovirus, salmonella or legionnaires’ disease. 

However, a spokesperson for Public Health England (PHE), which leads on significant outbreaks, said the organisation did not call upon environmental health workers to carry out contact tracing for coronavirus, instead using its own local health protection teams.

PHE’s contact tracing response team was increased to just under 300 staff and was deemed adequate for the containment phase of handling the COVID-19 virus up to mid-March. In that time the team, working around the clock, traced 3,500 people and supported the 3% of contacts found to be infected to self-isolate. Tracing was scaled back when the UK moved to the delay phase of tackling coronavirus in mid-March. It is now carried out in limited form, mainly for vulnerable communities.

Scotland’s leading rural and environmental organisations have issued a statement in relation to the rise in fly-tipping during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Scottish Land and Estates, the National Farmers’ Union of Scotland, the Scottish Partnership Against Rural Crime, Keep Scotland Beautiful and Zero Waste Scotland all urged the public to report any examples of flytipping.

In a heartfelt statement, they highlighted the impact on farmers – including huge financial costs – at a time when many are already stretched. The statement reads as follows:

“Over the past few weeks, we have seen Scotland’s beautiful countryside being blighted even more with people’s junk. Farmers’ fields, laybys and lanes have become hot spots for DIY remnants, unwanted furniture and garden waste.

“At a time when farmers are working around the clock to provide food for the nation and trying to keep their businesses running despite being short staffed, it is heart breaking to see their land being used as a giant tip. Additionally, local authorities have been forced to temporarily reduce or suspend some services due to the crisis, they are prioritising essential services to protect public health, therefore dealing with flytipping at this time puts added pressure on this limited resource.

“We are pleading with people not to be selfish. Now is not the time to try and get rid of items following a spring clean or DIY project, we are urging you to keep them at home until recycling centres re-open and charities begin to collect furniture and clothing again. Please don’t be taken in by offers of cheap disposal – that’s likely to lead to others fly-tipping your items. Keeping items on your own property for a few weeks is better than taking part in a criminal act that could have longer term consequences, not to mention a fine of up to £40,000.

“Flytipping is illegal, ugly and dangerous. It can be harmful to lambs, calves and other animals and wildlife too. But for farmers and other landowners, it is also costly to clean up. Dealing with litter and flytipping costs an eye watering £53 million of public money in Scotland every year, and that’s only in relation to public land. This money could be better spent elsewhere, particularly at this time.

“When litter and flytipping occurs on private land such as farmers’ fields, it is down to the owner to have it removed – and to foot the bill for doing so. The costs involved are huge. The effects are not all financial either. Flytipping takes time to clear responsibly, can block access, and can cause issues around health and safety.

“The public can also help by acting as the eyes and ears of their community – we urge anyone who notices flytipping to report it, so it can be dealt with by the appropriate authority. This can be done in a number of ways, including through the online Dumb Dumpers website or reporting directly to the relevant local authority.

“As rural and environmental organisations, we are working together to stop flytipping – but we can only do it with the public’s support.”

Signed

Sarah-Jane Laing, Chief Executive, Scottish Land & Estates

Andrew McCornick, President, NFUS

Alan Dron, Rural Crime Coordinator, Scottish Partnership Against Rural Crime

Barry Fisher, Chief Executive, Keep Scotland Beautiful

Iain Gulland, Chief executive, Zero Waste Scotland

In Scotland the Scottish Government works with a wide range of local and national organisations to prepare for all kinds of emergencies and to support emergency response.  The Ready Scotland website provides details of how Scotland are tackling the coronavirus outbreak and gives the opportunity to sign up as a volunteer and offer your support to help your community in this pandemic.  Ready Scotland will coordinate volunteers and work with various charities to ensure the voluntary work is focused in the areas of most need. 

The website is available here. 

The Health and Safety Executive and the Partnership on Health and Safety in Scotland (PHASS) have produced a joint statement with regarding to safe working – especially those continuing to attend a place of work away from their homes is intended to clarify the position. 

The statement is as follows:

“The health and safety of workers remains paramount. Employers must continue to provide workers with information about risks to their health and the actions their employers must take.

We have high expectations of how fair work principles should be applied during the current crisis. This means an approach where workers, trade unions and employers work together constructively to reach the right decisions on all workplace issues that arise throughout this crisis.  The dimensions of fair work as defined by the Fair Work Convention: effective voice; security; respect; opportunity and fulfilment, applied to the current context, offer a framework for taking these decisions.

Social distancing is a key public health measure supported by the Scottish Government to reduce the spread of infection but certain businesses are required to close by law.  Businesses unsure of the guidance should visit: https://www.gov.scot/news/social-distancing-guidance-for-business/.  Those that can safely stay open, keeping the country running, must also follow government guidance.

Most employers are going to great lengths to ensure social distancing.  PHASS wishes to publicly support these efforts.  But if it comes to the HSE’s attention that employers are not complying with the relevant public heath guidance (by enabling social distancing when it is practical to do so before personal protective measures), HSE will consider a range of actions ranging from providing specific advice to employers through to issuing enforcement notices, including prohibition notices.  Local authorities also have enforcement powers in specific premises under health and safety legislation and also powers – including to be able to close non-essential businesses – under new public health Coronavirus legislation in Scotland.

Where a worker has a genuine concern about health and safety which cannot be resolved through speaking with their employer or trade union, they should contact the relevant enforcement agency – either their local authority, or the HSE through https://www.hse.gov.uk/contact/concerns.htm”

I hope this message finds everyone well and coping as best you can since the country went in to lockdown as a control measure to help combat the COVID-19 pandemic.

Like most people, other than identified Key Workers that require to attend work, I have been working from home. It does take a bit of getting used to.  I want to let you know that everyone is impacted and what we are doing as an organisation. 

The Royal Environmental Health Institute of Scotland (REHIS) along with the Environmental Health community and others across the country have been impacted by the current COVID-19 pandemic.

Ahead of the full lockdown announced by both the UK and Scottish Governments on the evening of Monday 23 March 2020, the Institute through its staff and elected Council Members had already started to look at and implement alternative ways of working and providing a service, while helping to reduce the potential spread of illness.  This was immediately reviewed again at that time.  REHIS staff are currently working from home as far as possible. Regular contact, through various electronic means, is being maintained with all staff based at home.

Below is a summary of the activities being undertaken by the Institute:

·       The vast majority of work of the Institute continues with office staff based from home.  Recent progress to the use of 'Cloud' based storage systems for electronic files has facilitated this.

·       Anyone contacting the REHIS office by phone will hear a message advising any enquirers to email their query to contact@, queries are forwarded to the relevant person.

·       Responses to queries from members of the public, other organisations, Students/Graduate Trainees, colleagues including training centres are continuing to be provided without interruption.

·       Ongoing, active, work with the two accredited university courses, in relation to the REHIS Diploma in Environmental Health, is continuing by electronic means.

·       Registration of new students onto Scottish Food Safety Officer Registration Board (SFSORB) Higher Certificate qualifications and REHIS Diploma in Environmental Health, including provision of appropriate documentation has continued as normal.

·       The Institute’s Committee meetings with elected members are being conducted virtually by Skype.

·       Institute representatives are continuing with virtual meetings including for example;   Partnership Health and Safety in Scotland (PHASS), Scottish Food Enforcement Liaison Committee (SFELC) and a joint meeting with the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) and the Society of Chief Officers of Environmental Health in Scotland.

·       REHIS Approved Training Centres continuing to deliver REHIS Food Hygiene courses at Introduction, Elementary and Intermediate levels by e-Learning.

·       The Institute implemented contingency plans to allow Approved Training Centres to deliver live classes through video conferencing services such as Zoom or Skype for example.

·       REHIS Community Training Examiners are continuing to conduct live virtual oral examinations for Advanced Food Hygiene and Health and Safety courses.  Written examinations are being invigilated by live web cameras.

·       The Food Hygiene Secondary Schools Initiative has been issued digitally to schools to allow pupils to complete the course through homeworking.

·       REHIS e-alerts and newsletters are ongoing to keep members up to date

REHIS is aware through the roles undertaken by REHIS Office Bearers, Elected Council Members & the wider Membership and it partner organisations such as the Society of Chief Officers of Environmental Health in Scotland, Local Authorities and Approved Training centres that the COVID-19 Pandemic has significantly impacted the normal day to day activities of the Environmental Health profession and community in Scotland and elsewhere.

From personal experience I can report that Environmental Health and Trading Standards staff in Scotland’s Local Authorities have stepped up to the various challenges presented by the current pandemic.  This has included a joint expert panel for Local Authority regulatory activities in terms of the Health Protection (Coronavirus) (Restrictions) (Scotland) Regulations 2020 has been set up under the auspices of both Professions Chief Officer Organisations. I am are also aware that a number of Local Authorities including their Environmental Health Teams are providing information to their communities via their websites and social media channels. 

Advice and information regarding coronavirus can be found online including at: 

·       NHS Inform

·       Health Protection Scotland

·       Scottish Government

·       Food Standards Scotland

·       Health and Safety Executive

As a thank you to all Key Workers, everyone please stay safe and follow the guidelines in place to help protect us all.

Lisa McCann

President

Food Standards Scotland have updated their question and answer section for food business to accompany their guidance for food businesses on how to apply COVID- 19 control measures.

The updates are to the question and answers for food businesses, in particular this includes further detail on cleaning and disinfection.

The question and answers for food business is available here. 

The guidance is available here. 

A UK survey, which analysed both the sugar and calorie content of the largest available sizes of hot chocolates and seasonal lattes made with milk and milk alternatives by popular high street chains, allegedly revealed that certain seasonal beverages contain almost as much sugar as three cans of cola.

Many UK high street coffee chains are failing to make progress towards the government’s voluntary sugar reduction targets (overseen by Public Health England) with their festive milk and milk alternative hot beverages – most of which would be eligible for the Soft Drinks Industry Levy – according to a new nationwide survey by Action on Sugar, based at Queen Mary University of London.

The survey, which analysed both the sugar and calorie content of the largest available sizes of hot chocolates and seasonal lattes made with milk and milk alternatives (such as oat, almond, coconut, soya and rice-coconut) by popular high street chains, revealed certain seasonal beverages contain almost as much sugar as three cans of cola. Furthermore, all of the largest available size products surveyed would reportedly receive a red traffic light for total sugars (>13.5g/portion) – the exception being Costa’s Gingerbread Lattes (Medio) (made either with milk, soya or almond milk).

According to the survey findings, the worst hot chocolate ‘offender’ was Starbucks Signature Caramel Hot Chocolate with whipped cream, using Oat Milk (Venti). This beverage reportedly contained 23 teaspoons (93.7g) of sugar in one drink, and 758 calories – what Action on Sugar described as the same as eating four Tesco white chocolate and strawberry muffins.

Caffe Nero’s Salted Caramel Hot Chocolate (Grande) made with skimmed reportedly contained almost 15 teaspoons of sugar (59.6g) and 503 calories.

The survey revealed that Starbucks also ranked the highest for seasonal lattes with its Gingerbread Latte with Oat Milk allegedly containing over 14 teaspoons of sugar (56.6g) and 523 calories per portion – the equivalent of eating 17 custard cream biscuits, Action on Sugar reported. If the same hot beverage was served with their almond milk instead of their oat milk, Action on Sugar said that this would reduce the sugar content by 4.5 teaspoons of sugar (18g).

Even without the added sugar from syrups, the sugar content of milk alternatives was said to vary greatly. Unsweetened milk alternatives are said to be naturally similar or lower in sugars than cow’s milk and Action on Sugar has argued that using sugar-sweetened milks as well as sugary syrups is unnecessary. 

Despite being called upon for their high sugar content in Action on Sugar’s hot beverage survey in 2016, more than one in four (27 percent) directly comparable products are said to have seen no decrease in sugar but have instead increased. In 2016, a regular Vanilla Latte in KFC reportedly had 19g sugar per serve but now has 26g sugar per serve. However, a KFC regular Mocha has reduced sugar from 45.1g per serve to 21g per serve, showing no consistency in its reformulation process, argued Action on Sugar.

“It is shocking that so many high street coffee chains are wilfully putting their customers’ health at risk despite sugar reduction targets for sugary milk drinks being set in 2018. Responsible coffee shops have shown reformulation is possible within this category. For example, Costa have made some significant reductions in sugar since 2016 and some now offer smaller sizes as standard for seasonal drinks,” said Holly Gabriel, Registered Nutritionist at Action on Sugar. 

“Coffee shops and cafes need to take much greater steps to reduce the levels of sugar and portion sizes, promote lower sugar alternatives and stop pushing indulgent extras at the till.”

Graham MacGregor, Professor of Cardiovascular Medicine at Queen Mary University of London and Chairman of Action on Sugar, added: “It is vital that whichever government is in power next week fully commits to the target to halve childhood obesity by 2030, and to the current agreed Childhood Obesity Plan Chapter. This will mean giving full control to PHE to deliver a robust prevention programme and the authority to ensure that a largely irresponsible food industry fully complies – and that must include taxing these sugary milk-based drinks in the same way as soft drinks.”

In the current Coronavirus pandemic, Food Standards Scotland have asked for assistance that could be provided to them and their Official veterinarians, by qualified meat hygiene inspectors across Scotland.

If you are suitably qualified and would be interested please contact the Operational Delivery team at Food Standards Scotland directly via email at operations@fss.scot with brief details of your qualification and experience.