U.K. to Implement New Food Advertising Standards

U.K. Prime Minister Boris Johnson has announced a series of measures aimed at limiting advertising for foods high in salt, sugar and fat. The measures include a ban on ads for such foods before 9 p.m., the implementation of calorie counts on food menus and a ban on “buy one get one” deals on some types of foods. The government will also launch “a consultation to gather views and evidence on our current ‘traffic light’ labelling system to learn more about how this is being used by consumers and industry, compared to international examples.”

The announcement is a reversal from Johnson’s previous stance on food advertising limits that he attributed to his diagnosis and recovery from COVID-19. “I’ve wanted to lose weight for ages and like many people I struggle with my weight,” he wrote in The Daily Express. “I go up and down, but during the whole coronavirus epidemic and when I got it too, I realised how important it is not to be overweight. The facts are simple: extra weight puts extra pressure on our organs and makes it harder to treat heart disease, cancer and – as we have found – coronavirus. This was true in my case, and it’s true in many thousands of others. It was a wake-up call for me and I want it to be a wake-up call for the whole country.”