Children's Food Bill put before UK parliament could end junk food advertising aimed at kids

Main Category: Nutrition / Diet
Also Included In: Pediatrics / Children's Health
Article Date: 24 May 2004 - 0:00 PDT

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Junk food advertising aimed at children could be banned under proposals contained in a new bill that was last week presented to the UK parliament.

Introduced by Debra Shipley MP, the Children's Food Bill is designed to regulate the marketing, promotion and sale of food and drink to children. Developed in partnership with Sustain, the alliance for better food and farming, the bill has the support of 114 national organisations, including the British Dental Association, Diabetes UK and the Children's Society.

Despite the wide support, Ms Shipley said she was 'realistic' about the bill's prospects, and noted that its chances of reaching the statute books within the next few years were limited. She said that the bill would probably only 'breathe life' once a parliamentary and public consensus on the problem of childhood obesity had been reached. In the meantime, she planned to lobby government departments and MPs to raise the profile of the issue.

'We are going to begin a momentum that cannot be stopped,' Ms Shipley told a press conference. Under proposals contained in the bill, the Food Standards Agency would be required to specify criteria for healthy and unhealthy food and drink, taking into account nutritional content and other criteria, such as the presence of additives and contaminants.

Based on these criteria, the marketing of unhealthy foods would be prohibited and the government would be required to publish an annual plan to promote healthy foods, such as fruit, to children. The types of food available to children at school would also be addressed under the bill. It includes proposals for school meal standards, better food education, and a ban on selling unhealthy food in school vending machines.

Meanwhile, the Liberal Democrats have launched their own strategy, Childhood obesity: a growing problem. Along with calling for a toughening of the code governing the advertising of food and drink to children, the LibDems have called for a ban on junk food advertising on school vending machines, a review of the nutritional standards for school meals, along with a change in the secondary school curriculum to include two hours per week of mandatory physical activity in class time.

Public Health News UK

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