Food Advertising Banned in the UK

Obesity has been a growing problem for the United States and while the U.S. has failed to produce a solution to the problem, the United Kingdom has developed their own strategy. Ofcom, the regulator for the UK communications industries, has chosen to ban all advertising for foods and drink that are high in fat, sugar, and salt that appear in or around all programs that would appeal to children. The restrictions will be made according to a Nutrient Profiling Scheme developed by the Food Standards Agency.

The profiling scheme employs a scoring system, which awards foods points for the content of eight nutrients in 100-gram samples for food and 200-gram samples for drink. The nutrients are separated into two groups. Group A includes energy, saturated fat, NME (non-milk extrinsic) sugar, and sodium. Group B includes iron, calcium, n-3 PUFAS (Polyunsaturated Fatty Acids), fruit content, and vegetable content. Points are given to each food based on how much of each nutrient one food has. The higher amount of nutrient a food has would equal a higher score. The total score is determined by subtracting group B's total points from group A's total points. A resulting overall score is then graded on a scale with 0 being healthy and 10 being unhealthy.

The process started when Tessa Jowell, Secretary of State for Culture, Media, and Sport, asked Ofcom to strengthen rules on advertising food and drink to children. The concern was child obesity and the declining overall health of children. There is no time of the day that is safe for the ads to avoid the ban. Along with the ads, any use of celebrities and characters (cartoons) in all food and drink advertising directed towards children are not allowed.

Along with the UK government, those in favor of the restrictions according to articles on www.foe.org and www.ofcom.org are the Food Standards Agency, the Children's Commissioner, and health lobby groups like Sustain. Those opposed to the restrictions include the food industry, specifically those dealing with cheese according to www.kidlaw.com.

With these new restrictions, Ofcom believes that obesity will go down and the overall content quality of children's advertising will go up. Ofcom will review the progress of the new bans in autumn of 2008.