An article in the Guardian came out today which noted that the shadow health secretary Andy Burnham has called for a law to be made to regulate how much fat, salt and sugar is being added to foods.
He said “There are some products on the market that are so full of salt, sugar or fat that they are unacceptable and they have to be brought in line.”
Just recently I was food shopping and from a WHOLE isle of breakfast cereals, I could find just two varieties of cereal that had appropriate sugar contents (under 5g/100g). The majority of other of cereals (many of which were aimed towards children) had sugar levels above 15g/100g with some reaching almost 40g/100g (that’s 40% sugar!!!), which is considered HIGH and would be labelled with a red light on food packages that use front of pack labelling.
The article went on to say that the food industry had commented that the idea of producing food with less sugar, salt and fat was “hugely complicated” and that healthy foods such as raisins would have to be controlled.
I would argue however, that the suggested regulations would only need to be targeted towards those foodstuffs which are manufactured and processed and where sugar, fat and salt are ADDED to products. However, I welcome the opinions of others on this matter…..?
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