What can we expect from a ban on junk food price promotions?

There’s no silver bullet against obesity. Government and industry must collaborate, and support consumers, writes Cesar Revoredo-Giha

 
In its quest to fight the health implications brought by obesity, the UK government announced on 27 July that England will be banning “buy one get one free” (BOGOF) deal promotions on unhealthy food, as well as junk food adverts before 9 pm for the entire UK. In addition, it will hold two consultations, one on whether to stop fast food adverts online altogether and another on alcoholic drinks, and will introduce new rules for displaying calories on menus, which will apply to any restaurant, cafe or takeaway chain with more than 250 employees (BBC News, 2020).

Elsewhere in the UK, similar measures were considered by the Scottish government as part of its 2018 Diet and Healthy Weight Delivery Plan, which aimed at halving childhood obesity by 2030 and significantly reducing diet-related health inequalities. However, on 11 June the Scottish government announced that it was putting the legislation on hold and was no longer planning to introduce the Restricting Foods Promotions Bill in 2020 due to the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic on the food and drink and retail industries and on consumer behaviour (The Scottish Parliament, 2020).

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Πηγή: blogs.lse.ac.uk