9pm watershed on #junkfoodads launched by the Department for Health and Social Care

19 Mar 2019 9pm watershed on #junkfoodads launched by the Department for Health and Social Care

We are pleased to report that the Government has just announced a consultation to restrict children’s exposure to junk food adverts, including an option to introduce a 9pm watershed on unhealthy food and drinks adverts.

The aim of the consultation is to gather views on how the government can reduce children’s exposure to HFSS advertising, to reduce children’s over consumption of these products. The Department of Health and Social Care has stated that they want any future advertising restrictions to be focused on HFSS products that are linked to childhood obesity and to encourage brands to make their products healthier.

The measure has been supported from parents to politicians and charities plus a range of health professionals who deal with the consequences of obesity every day and have no vested interests other than the future health of children, as reported by the Obesity Health Alliance.

This policy comes as part of a series of consultations to tackle unhealthy food environments in the Government’s second chapter of their Childhood Obesity Plan, including banning the sale of energy drinks to young people, mandating calorie labelling in the out of home sector and restricting promotions of less healthy food and drink by price and place – of which Food Active has submitted an official response in support of all measures.

The consultation to restrict children’s exposure to junk food adverts will be no different, and we look forward to preparing our response to the consultation with the public health community and local authorities in due course. The consultation is now open for a 12-week period, closing on 10th June 2019 and can be found via the link below.

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