MORE than 30,000 people have signed a petition calling to ban junk food adverts before the watershed in a bid to cut down on the one in three children now classed as obese or overweight.
More than two-thirds (71 per cent) of parents in Scotland said they think the Government should introduce stricter regulations on the food industry to better control how junk food is advertised to children.
Three in five (58 per cent) said they believe that stopping children being exposed to junk food adverts could help towards tackling the obesity crisis amongst youngsters.
Well over half (56 per cent) said that adverts promoting foods that are high in saturated fat, salt and sugar effect what their children want to eat, while 52 per cent said junk food adverts make it harder for them to say no to their children or get them to eat healthily.
Around 30 per cent of children in Scotland are overweight or obese but the British Heart Foundation (BHF), which commissioned the survey of 2,000 UK adults, said loopholes in the regulatory system mean that junk food adverts that are banned during children's programming can still be shown during family shows.
BHF director of policy Mike Hobday said: "Junk food companies are exploiting legal loopholes in the regulatory system, allowing them to continue bombarding children with junk food adverts.
"By protecting young people against the sophisticated marketing techniques of junk food advertisers we can help tackle the obesity crisis which threatens the heart health of future generations.
"We urge the UK Government to heed the public's clear call and take immediate action."
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereComments are closed on this article