New Delhi: The British government on Monday said that “Britain will ban ‘Buy One Get One Free’ promotions for food from April 2022 – Which increases fat, sugar, salt in the human body. The government will also ban free refills of sugary soft drinks in restaurants. It is the latest plan of the government to tackle obesity and improve public health.”
Obesity is Britain’s Major and long term public health problem and almost two-thirds of adults in England are overweight. One in three children leaving primary school overweight or obese, The British Government says.
Prime Minister Boris Johnson also said that “Being overweight has been shown to increase the risk of serious illness or death from COVID-19.”
The British Government plans to restrict promotion or advertisement of unhealthy products at end of aisles, checkouts and shop entrances.
The Public health Minister of the UK Jo Churchill said that “We are restricting promotions and introducing a range of measures to make sure the healthy choice is the easy choice. Creating an environment which helps everyone eat healthier foods more regularly is crucial to improving the health of the nation,”
Earlier Britain had already restricted the “buy one get one free” junk food advertisements on TV channels and ordered TV channels to not show advertisements of junk food before 9.00 pm.
Last month the government went further and proposed a total ban on online advertising of unhealthy food.
-Vinayak.Barot