BERLIN, June 14 (Xinhua) -- The consumer group Foodwatch, a European advocacy group focusing on protecting consumer rights, has urged the German government on Friday to push back against a worrying increase in national obesity rates.

Speaking to the German press agency (dpa), Foodwatch director Martin Ruecker called for swift imposition of stricter regulations in the domestic food industry to reverse the trend.

Ruecker said that it was time for policymakers to send a "signal" that they would now "act resolutely" instead of "cosying up" to industry representatives peddling unhealthy merchandise.

The comments by the Foodwatch director were made on the sidelines of an ongoing conference held between Germany's regional consumer protection ministers in Saarbruecken. Ruecker described the meeting as being symptomatic of a longstanding approach adopted across diverse levels of German government in which legislators discussed the growing issue of obesity and related diseases at length without taking any concrete steps in response.

"Almost nothing has happened in the past 15 years", the consumer group leader complained. He argued that a "package" of measures was urgently needed to tackle the national obesity crisis, including a levy on beverages with high levels of sugar and more restrictions on the ways that producers could advertise unhealthy food and drinks.

Additionally, Ruecker proposed establishing a mandatory system in which a so-called "food traffic light" was visibly placed on the packaging of food products to highlight their levels of sugar, fat and salt. "We expect the German state governments to finally move ahead with this (proposal)", Ruecker said.

While individual regional consumer protection ministers have expressed sympathy for the policy proposals listed by Foodwatch, Julia Kloeckner (CDU), the German federal minister for nutrition has so far ruled out imposing any form of sugar tax or the "food traffic light". At least 13 out of Germany's 16 state governments would have to approve such legislation in order for it to be passed nationwide without the support of the federal government in Berlin.

Even if no uniform stance is reached by the regional consumer protection ministers in Saarbruecken, the launching of a cross-party initiative to draw attention to the need for far-reaching measures to tackle obesity and unhealthy nutrition could raise pressure on chancellor Angela Merkel's (CDU) cabinet to act as well. The federal government would no longer "find it as easy to ignore the topic" if it was confronted in this fashion, Ruecker opined.

The Foodwatch director highlighted that the recent introduction of a sugar tax in the United Kingdom had already been successful in leading producers of soft-drinks to drastically lower the sugar content of their beverages. "Just a single glass of a sugary soft-drink a day can significantly raise the risk of obesity and related diseases for consumers", Ruecker warned.

Even in the absence of a nationwide policy response, Ruecker further emphasized that state governments already had the power to change meal plans at public schools and day care facilities.

He pointed out that there was "no way to justify" that children were still often provided with a "completely unbalanced" diet of foods in state-run schools. As long as state legislators were willing, meaningful change in this specific context could "happen as soon as tomorrow."

Foodwatch is a non-profit campaigning organization that fights for safe, healthy and affordable food for all people.?