ADPH welcomes new legislation

Earlier today, the Government laid the long-overdue Statuatory Instrument for the regulations on TV (before 9pm) and online (at any time) advertising of food and drink products classified as “less healthy”.

Our Vice President, Alice Wiseman, who is also Director of Public Health for Gateshead and Newcastle, said:

“We know that advertising and marketing influences purchasing and consumption habits, and that these habits are formed at an early age, and we have long-since called for more regulation on advertising to protect our children and young people.

“Today’s legislation to ban television advertising of junk food before the nine o’clock watershed is very good news and rightly recognises that restricting advertising will make a big difference to tackling the obesity and diet-related disease public health emergency that the UK is currently facing.

“However, it is not a silver bullet, and we are also urging the Government to take action to make affordable food more accessible, and to reduce the unnecessarily high levels of fat, salt and sugar that are currently present in so much of our food, so that everyone can eat healthier options, regardless of where they live or how much they earn.”