Porridge and granola among products to feature in UK junk food advert ban
Porridge and granola are among the products included in the UK government’s junk food advertising ban next year.
New rules revealed that the restrictions would include ready meals, stuffed pasta, oat-based cereals, confectionery, soft drinks, ice cream and pizza, as well as savoury snacks such as crisps, pitta bread based snacks, rice cakes, pretzels, poppadoms and salted popcorn.
The regulations will see items deemed ‘unhealthy’ through a scoring system that measures energy, saturated fat, total sugar and sodium against more beneficial nutrients, banned from adverts shown on TV before 9pm from 1 October 2025.
It comes in a bid to limit obesity levels as according to NHS data, one in eight toddlers and primary school children are obese.
Ministers have said 7.2bn calories per year are expected to be removed from children’s diets in the UK, which will prevent an estimated 20,000 cases of childhood obesity, Financial Times reported.
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Health secretary Wes Streeting said: “Obesity robs our kids of the best possible start in life, sets them up for a lifetime of health problems and costs the NHS billions.”
It comes as the Labour government confirmed in September that it would bring in the ban next year, following previous delays under the Conservative government.
In a written statement, health minister Andrew Gwynne said: “We want to tackle the problem head on and that includes implementing the restrictions on junk food advertising on TV and online without further delay. We will introduce a 9pm watershed on TV advertising, and a total ban on paid-for online advertising.”
It marks the latest move to tackle obesity levels in the UK, with the previous government having introduced high in fat, salt or sugar (HFSS) regulations on 1 October 2022, which saw products deemed unhealthy removed from store entrances, gondola ends and checkouts.
9 Comments. Leave new
More explanation is needed, to say all porridge us bad for you is crazy, some people are clearly going to take that comment seriously.
My porridge has definitely not got any “red” dots on the nutrition reference chart, so please tell me what part is bad for me??
I always thought and thought that porridge and granola were healthy foods. I am not going to be dictated by anyone in what I eat and drink.
We are paying for people to invent these stupid rules. We are the stupid ones.
Labour gone potty .
There is only one thing that should be banned in the UK Starmer and the Labour party.
I always thought Porridge was a healthy food.
So did I. So apart from eggs, what should I eat for breakfast then?
Proper steel-cut Oats made simply with milk …. or the rubbish that’s in flavoured or the high GO Instant Porridge Pots. That’s marketed as ‘healthy Oats/superdood’, but nutritionally little better than Coco-Pops.
Think a little more explanation is needed, people are clearly going to assume it means ALL makes and brands of porridge to simply say porridge is bad for you is crazy!
There’s no “RED” dot on my porridge mutrion reference scale.