Ban junk food TV adverts at all hours, Dimbleby urges

JUNK food adverts should be banned from TV at all times, the former Government food tsar has told a House of Lords committee.

Henry Dimbleby, the author of the National Food Strategy, has called for a 24-hour ban on advertising ultra-pro- cessed foods (UPFS) and high saturated fat, salt, and sugar foods (HFSS) to tackle obesity and other food-causing health issues.

Giving evidence to the food, diet and obesity committee yesterday, Mr Dimbleby said the first thing he would do is “break the junk food cycle”.

Mr Dimbleby, the co-founder of the restaurant chain Leon, said: “I would immediately restrict the advertising, which is something the Government said they would do, [but] they put it back to 2025.”

The Government has repeatedly pushed back plans to bring in a watershed ban on junk food adverts, which would mean they can only be broadcast between 9pm and 5.30am, which was first advised in 2021 but will come into effect from 2025 at the earliest.

Mr Dimbleby also repeated proposals that were dismissed by the Government in 2022 to introduce taxes on sugar and salt. He said it “wouldn’t put the price of food up” but accepted it was a politically difficult decision during a cost-of-living crisis.

The National Food Strategy was an independent review of England’s food chain “from field to fork” led by Mr Dimbleby and published in 2021.

It made a series of recommendations to improve the nation’s health and tackle the root causes of obesity and bad diets.

The 53-year-old quit his advisory role in early 2023, accusing the Government of an “insane” lack of action being taken against obesity, but was brought before the House of Lords committee to give evidence.

He also told the committee he had “really come around” to big black octagons on UPFS and HFSSS, which was also recommended by Dr Chris van Tulleken, an infectious disease doctor and author, giving evidence to the same panel.

Mr Dimbleby said: “The second thing I would do, to Chris’s point, which I didn’t recommend, but I’ve actually really come around to it is great big black octagons on stuff that is both UPF and HFSS, so it’s not Tony the Tiger looking at you.

“It’s a great black [warning sign] and there’s no doubt that we think that this stuff is going to do harm.”