The chairman of Cadbury-Schweppes said yesterday that the confectionery industry was not responsible for the rise in child obesity, according to a newspaper report today.
Chairman John Sunderland said yesterday that Britons needed to take responsibility for their eating habits and weight problems.
Cadbury’s, the maker of Dairy Milk chocolate, Bassetts and Dr Pepper, was criticised in April last year for a government-backed campaign to encourage children to buy chocolate bars in exchange for free sports equipment.
Sunderland also warned the Government against becoming a “nanny state” that told people what they could or could not eat.
The Grocer Junk the Spin campaign is continuing to receive positive feedback. The campaign calls for the Government to work with the food and drink industry to come up with new ways of improving the nation’s health.
The campaign also criticises the traffic light scheme proposal whereby foods would be labelled to indicate how healthy they are.
Speaking to The Times this month, a spokesman for Cadbury Schweppes said: We don’t think that traffic light labelling is necessarily useful, we think it can be confusing to consumers. The (obesity) issue is far more complex than something that’s going to be addressed by that.”
In its September 25 issue The Grocer expressed its fears that under the traffic light scheme would mean that cheese, orange juice, full cream milk and brown bread could also be tagged with red danger stickers.
Editor Julian Hunt said: “It seems our campaign has not come soon enough, This is a daft idea and should be killed at birth.”
The FDF also gave warning that any mandatory changes to food labelling in the UK would have to be approved by the European Union first.
Other food manufacturers have criticised the scheme, believing that the obesity and health issue can be tackled in other ways.
Chairman John Sunderland said yesterday that Britons needed to take responsibility for their eating habits and weight problems.
Cadbury’s, the maker of Dairy Milk chocolate, Bassetts and Dr Pepper, was criticised in April last year for a government-backed campaign to encourage children to buy chocolate bars in exchange for free sports equipment.
Sunderland also warned the Government against becoming a “nanny state” that told people what they could or could not eat.
The Grocer Junk the Spin campaign is continuing to receive positive feedback. The campaign calls for the Government to work with the food and drink industry to come up with new ways of improving the nation’s health.
The campaign also criticises the traffic light scheme proposal whereby foods would be labelled to indicate how healthy they are.
Speaking to The Times this month, a spokesman for Cadbury Schweppes said: We don’t think that traffic light labelling is necessarily useful, we think it can be confusing to consumers. The (obesity) issue is far more complex than something that’s going to be addressed by that.”
In its September 25 issue The Grocer expressed its fears that under the traffic light scheme would mean that cheese, orange juice, full cream milk and brown bread could also be tagged with red danger stickers.
Editor Julian Hunt said: “It seems our campaign has not come soon enough, This is a daft idea and should be killed at birth.”
The FDF also gave warning that any mandatory changes to food labelling in the UK would have to be approved by the European Union first.
Other food manufacturers have criticised the scheme, believing that the obesity and health issue can be tackled in other ways.
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