Ban on junk food advertisement proposed in UK

The Scottish public health minister has called for a ban on junk food advertisements before 9 PM in UK. The ban is proposed to extend to the whole of United Kingdom.
Earlier, the broadcasting regulatory body Ofcom had banned advertisement of food products containing high sugar, salt and fat content in children’s programmes.

However, a study by academics at Newcastle University showed in a recent research that kids were still watching more or less same number of junk food advertisements.
Michael Matheson, the public health minister of Scotland pointed out that while the earlier rule had successfully banned junk food advertisements on the channels and in specific the programmes aimed at children, it had loopholes because many programmes with very high number of child audience like talent shows and soaps still featured them.

In the meanwhile most of the parents have welcomed the ban. In a survey conducted in UK by Children’s Food Trust, about two thirds of the parents supported ban on junk food advertisement. The survey included about a thousand parents; 69 % of whom reportedly agreed that more could be done to promote healthy diet. Forty percent of the parents also felt that junk food advertisements made it difficult for them to buy health foods.