Checkout ‘candy canyons’ banned in war on obesity

PARENTS will no longer be forced to run the gauntlet of ‘ candy canyon’ racks of sweets at store checkouts under new Government plans to tackle obesity.

Shop staff will also be banned from tempting customers with special offers for chocolate, crisps or sweets.

The moves are part of a major strategy by the Government to halve childhood obesity by 2030 – and save the NHS a fortune – to be unveiled t oday by Health Secretary Jeremy Hunt.

As well as introducing new legislation to scrap checkout confectionery displays, the Government is also looking at:

A ban on TV adverts before 9pm for foods high in sugar, fat or salt;

Forcing al l restaurants, cafes and takeaways to have ‘consistent calorie labelling’ of meals, snacks and drinks;

Making it illegal for shops to sell energy drinks to children;

Including milkshakes and sugar-laden teas and coffees in the sugar tax.

Health campaigners l ast night praised Ministers for finally grasping the scale of the obesity crisis but said action was needed now, not after years of consultations. However, the food industry warned the measures would cause ‘deep disquiet’ and could cost jobs.

About 37 per cent of children in England and Wales aged 11 to 15 are now overweight or obese, up from 30 per cent in the mid-1990s.

Announcing the measures, the Department of Health said: ‘We intend to introduce legislation to ban checkout, end-ofaisle and store entrance deals and buy-one-get-one-free deals. This will apply to food high in fat, sugar and salt sold in supermarkets and online.’

Mr Hunt said: ‘Parents are asking for help… it is our job to give power to parents to make healthier choices, and to make their life easier in doing so. The cost of obesity – both on individual lives and our NHS – is too great to ignore.’

Preventing shops from the hard sell of chocolate at checkouts would be a victory for chef and campaigner Hugh Fearnley- Whittingstall, who took WH Smith to task over such tactics in the recent BBC series Britain’s Fat Fight.

Besides o f f e r i ng s weets piled high in what critics have dubbed ‘ candy canyons’ its other tactics included offering special deals on large chocolate bars at manned and selfservice tills.

Dr Rangan Chatterjee, a GP and star of BBC1’s Doctor In The House, said: ‘We haven’t suddenly got a generation of kids who are lazy, gluttonous and want to gorge on rubbish all the time. The environment has changed and the Government needs to help create a healthy environment,’ he said.

Public Health Minister Steve Brine said the fight against childhood obesity was ‘a battle we cannot afford to lose’. But Tim Rycroft of the Food and Drink Federation said: ‘There will be deep disquiet in the food and manufacturing sector.’

A WH Smith spokeswoman said: ‘We continue to extend our healthy eating range… and the visibility of healthy choices.’

‘There is deep disquiet in the food sector’