This week, The Grocer calls on Ofcom to abandon its use of the Nutrient Profiling Model with immediate effect. Using a standard 100g unit to measure each food or drink product, this model was developed by the Food Standards Agency to help the regulator determine which products should be banned from advertising to children in a bid to cut obesity in kids.
So why the campaign? Simple: NPM doesn't work. As we explain (see pp34-38) a number of healthy and nutritious products - including cheese, Marmite, raisins, honey and All-Bran - are banned; while others that are more fatty, more sugary and more fatty, escape.
To be fair, the FSA developed the system for a limited suite of products: snacks, cereals, pizzas, sweets. But like some mad scientist in a remote castle in a Gothic fantasy novel, the agency has created a monster over which it appears to have no control.
Media coverage in this debate has focused on the cost of Ofcom's ban to the broadcasting industry. But, with Lion Bar looking like an imminent casualty of the nation's switch to a healthier diet, no-one has considered the cost of this ban to the food industry.
And more important, no-one has considered the cost of the FSA's tinkerings on the health of children, as it penalises products that are nutritious and wholesome, while others, with more debatable health claims, are let off. (And this is not an isolated case of muddled thinking. Recently it emerged the FSA was toying with advising consumers to cut down on fish consumption, not on health grounds but for sustainability reasons. Why?)
Weigh It Up! is not a campaign to stop the junk food advertising ban. We don't want to get involved in the debate about watersheds and 16-year-olds. We are calling for reason, and a sense of (pro)portion.
So why the campaign? Simple: NPM doesn't work. As we explain (see pp34-38) a number of healthy and nutritious products - including cheese, Marmite, raisins, honey and All-Bran - are banned; while others that are more fatty, more sugary and more fatty, escape.
To be fair, the FSA developed the system for a limited suite of products: snacks, cereals, pizzas, sweets. But like some mad scientist in a remote castle in a Gothic fantasy novel, the agency has created a monster over which it appears to have no control.
Media coverage in this debate has focused on the cost of Ofcom's ban to the broadcasting industry. But, with Lion Bar looking like an imminent casualty of the nation's switch to a healthier diet, no-one has considered the cost of this ban to the food industry.
And more important, no-one has considered the cost of the FSA's tinkerings on the health of children, as it penalises products that are nutritious and wholesome, while others, with more debatable health claims, are let off. (And this is not an isolated case of muddled thinking. Recently it emerged the FSA was toying with advising consumers to cut down on fish consumption, not on health grounds but for sustainability reasons. Why?)
Weigh It Up! is not a campaign to stop the junk food advertising ban. We don't want to get involved in the debate about watersheds and 16-year-olds. We are calling for reason, and a sense of (pro)portion.
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