Sweets ban at tills to tackle child obesity
SUPERMARKETS will be banned from selling sweets and chocolate at checkouts and forced to end two-for-one offers on junk food under Government plans to tackle child obesity, The Daily Telegraph has learnt.
Jeremy Hunt, the Health Secretary, is also planning to bring in a 9pm watershed on advertising products high in sugar and salt from 2020.
Ministers will also consider a ban on the use of cartoon characters and celebrities to promote junk food, and consult on laws to bar retailers from selling energy drinks to under-16s.
The policies are outlined in the Government’s child obesity strategy, which has been seen by The Telegraph. Ministers from other departments are being consulted on the plans.
There are concerns that “guilt lanes” near supermarket tills encourage children to pester their parents into buying junk food. The subject has been debated fiercely in Cabinet, with Mr Hunt pushing hard for tough measures. Although campaigners such as Jamie Oliver, the television chef, are likely to welcome the plans, they could provoke a backlash from retailers.
The strategy makes clear that while shops have taken the “first steps” to tackling obesity, laws will be needed to create a “level playing field” and target stores that have failed to take action.
The document states: “Where food is placed in shops and how it is promoted can influence the way we shop and it is more common for HFSS [high in fat, sugar and salt] products to be placed in the most prominent places in store as well as sold on promotion, eg with ‘buy one get one free’ offers.”
The strategy says that the Government will consult on banning “the promotion of unhealthy foods and drinks” at tills, the end of aisles and at store entrances before the end of the year.
Ministers will begin a consultation later this year on banning “buy one get one free” offers on products such as biscuits and cakes and on ending “unlimited refills” of high-sugar fizzy drinks in restaurants.
The “guilt lanes” ban was first mooted in 2013 and was expected to be a key part of the Government’s first child obesity strategy in August 2016, along with restrictions on junk food ads. That document was heavily criticised after being watered down.
However, the Prime Minister has revived the policies in a second strategy, which orders a consultation on a 9pm watershed for junk food ads and will also examine whether further legislation is necessary to stop ads for unhealthy food targeting children online.
The strategy adds that the Government will “undertake some further work” to examine proposals to ban “the use of licenced characters, cartoon characters and celebrities” to advertise junk food to children.
Ministers will also consult on plans to ban the sale of energy drinks to children under 16 amid concerns that they contain high levels of sugar, carbohydrate and caffeine. Supermarkets such as Waitrose have already done so but there are concerns that children can buy the drinks in other shops.
A Department of Health and Social Care spokesman said: “We’ve always said that our 2016 plan was the start of the conversation, not the final word on obesity. We are in the process of working up an updated plan, and will be in a position to say more shortly.”