24 Jun 2021 Food Active Response: UK Government confirms plans to take #JunkFoodAds out of the spotlight
Today the Department for Health and Social Care and the Government have confirmed plans to further restrict the marketing of less healthy food and drink on both TV and online. The restrictions include a 9pm watershed on TV, restrictions on paid-for adverts online and are due to be introduced at the end of 2022. Read our Programme Lead’s response below.
Nicola Calder, Food Active Programme Lead said:
“We are delighted to learn more about the Government’s plans to restrict marketing of HFSS products on TV before 9pm plus stronger regulations on marketing HFSS products online. This represents significant progress on putting children’s health first, and we applaud the Department of Health and Social Care and campaign groups such as the Obesity Health Alliance for working tirelessly to get this important policy over the line and resisting the intense lobbying from industry of late.
Whilst we feel the policy could go further in some areas, such as advertising of specific brands, this is a great first step towards taking less healthy food and drink out of the spotlight, and we look forward to working on strengthening the regulations in the years to come.”
To find out more about the policy, please click here.
