Junk food: Porridge and crumpets fall under new ad ban

Speaking on BBC Radio 4’s Today programme, cook and Wahaca restaurant chain co-founder Ms Miers welcomed the advertising ban.

“The government is taking very concerted, bold, and very brave action against big food [companies] who have a complete control of our food environment,” she said.

Ms Miers said the ban would reduce the strain on taxpayers, pointing to research by Professor Tim Jackson, external for the Food Farming and Countryside Commission suggesting food-related chronic disease costs the UK £268bn a year.

“We’ve got the worst diet in Europe and we know it’s causing us absolute pain, discomfort, long-term sickness, early death, preventable death. It’s bringing the NHS to its knees”, she said.

Ms Miers said the “proposed legislation doesn’t go far enough” and urged the government to do more to tackle poor diets.

The government has said its legislation will prevent thousands of cases of childhood obesity each year, and is expected to remove 7.2 billion calories annually from UK children’s diets.

But for Prasanna Callaghan, who runs Crumpets café near Buckingham Palace, the proposed advertising ban on baked goods is “bonkers.”

“The world’s gone mad”, he told BBC News, arguing the government legislation should draw a clearer distinction between crumpets and more traditional junk food like fried chicken.

“If you categorise crumpets as a junk food that will have a great impact on my business – basically what they’re saying is: ‘you shouldn’t eat crumpets’, indirectly.”

“It’s an old traditional food that’s been eaten for years and years”, he said of the griddled bread.