Unhealthy food - High shelves plan ludicrous

Retailers do not need the Government to tell them which shop-shelves to put particular foods on, said the British Retail Consortium (BRC).

Reacting to the Department of Health’s report Healthy Weight, Healthy Lives: one year on published today (Monday), the BRC welcomed its recognition that retailers are doing a great deal to offer and promote healthier eating choices and its recognition that families are increasingly eating healthier diets as a result. But the BRC says the report’s suggestion that a new food marketing code would ban ’less healthy foods’ from display at children’s eye- line is misguided.

British Retail Consortium Food Director Andrew Opie said. "The Government rightly recognises retailers’ achievements in developing and promoting healthier eating choices and that more families are actually making healthier choices as a result.

"UK retailers have a great record on reducing fat, sugar and salt in products, providing nutritional information and delivering discounts and promotions on fresh food – without any need for regulation.

"Rules about which products should go on which shelves would be seriously misguided. It’s very hard to see how this could work in practice. How high is child’s eye-line anyway?

"It’s parents who buy children’s food. The idea that making particular foods hard to reach would make any difference is ludicrous.

"There are no bad foods only bad diets. This proposal risks demonising foods which can happily be eaten as part of a balanced diet."