Ban 'toxic' trans fats and junk food adverts says NHS watchdog

|
Trans fat

Trans fats have been classified as 'toxic' by the World Health Organisation (WHO)

More than 40,000 premature deaths could be prevented with healthier food rules including a ban on takeaways near schools and reduced salt and fat levels in processed foods
 

The Government should push ahead with measures to restrict the availability and promotion of junk food as well as bringing in front of package traffic-light food labelling, says the NHS watchdog the National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence (NICE).

It said measures to remove trans fats, classified as 'toxic' by the World Health Organisation (WHO) and cutting saturated fat levels from foods alone would prevent 20,000 premature deaths every year.

The recommendations form part of new guidance to the Government on reducing the impact of unhealthy food on heart disease and stroke - principally through getting the food industry to cut salt and hidden saturated fat levels in food and ensuring low salt and saturated products are sold more cheaply than their higher content equivalents.

'This isn’t about telling individuals to choose salad instead of chips - it’s about making sure that the chips we all enjoy occasionally are as healthy as possible,' said NICE director Professor Mike Kelly.

'This guidance can help the Government and the food industry to take action to prevent huge numbers of unnecessary deaths and illnesses caused by heart disease and stroke,' added Professor Simon Capewell, part of the group that compiled the guidance.

'Now is precisely the time to push harder and to work together better to reduce the risks of cardiovascular disease still further, beginning with children and young people, to reduce their risks in later life.'

Traffic-light labelling

NICE also recommended introducing traffic-light labelling on the front of all food packaging and said it was 'proven to help shoppers make a healthy informed choice about what they and their families eat.' However, these proposals suffered a setback last week as heavy lobbying by the food industry saw European MPs recently vote against such proposals.

The other key recommendations were:

  • Restrict planning permission and opening hours for takeaways and other unhealthy food retail outlets near schools and within local communities

 

 

  • Eliminate industrially-produced trans fats from processed food and takeaways

 

  • Force manufacturers to reduce hidden saturated fat in food if they fail to do so voluntarily


Useful links

Full NICE guidance

  READ MORE...
NEWS
Industry lobbying sees EU reject 'traffic light' food labelling
Food industry spent €1 billion euros lobbying against proposals to help consumers make 'healthy meal' choices with a system of red, green and amber labels on the front of food packaging
NEWS
Teach children to ignore junk-food advertising, say experts
Fruits, vegetables and juices were advertised in only 1.7 per cent of commercials on US children's TV, says study, but reducing junk-food advertising may not be enough
INTERVIEW
Robert Kenner: Big Food will do everything to stop you talking about this
Filmmaker Robert Kenner's documentary Food Inc has shocked audiences across the US with its stark portrayal of industrial agriculture. And that's just the bits the lawyers let you see...
GREEN LIVING
What type of salt is best?
A little bit of natural seasoning won’t kill you, it’s what gets added – or taken away – that matters. Pat Thomas explains why refining and demonising salt is such a crude response
COMMENT
Let's use the Gulf Stream to increase UK food production
Our current patterns of veg growing mostly ignore the fact that the UK is much warmer than it should be for its latitude - and we could exploit that

More from this author