Call for ban on ads for unhealthy foods before 9pm

IRELAND’S new broadcasting authority must move quickly to ban all adverts for foods high in fat, sugar and salt, up to 9pm to protect children’s health, an Oireachtas committee has been told.

The Irish Heart Foundation and the National Heart Alliance, who yesterday met members of the Joint Committee on Communications, Energy and Natural Resources, said the Broadcasting Bill, currently before the Seanad, provided for a ban on food advertising, but did not specify a time frame.

The foundation’s health promotion manager Maureen Mulvihill said a 6am to 9pm ban would ensure that young people watching programmes outside of children’s viewing hours were protected from sophisticated advertising campaigns that promote unhealthy eating.

“A 6am to 9pm ban would protect the health of children, address the concerns of Irish parents and respond to the robust scientific evidence that links commercial promotion of foods and beverages to poor diets in children,” she said.

Ms Mulvihill said there were three separate sections in the bill that allow the authority to introduce regulations restricting advertising of foods high in fat, sugar and salt.

She said a review of regulations in Britain, where there is a 7pm watershed on adverts for foods high in fat, sugar and salt, fell short of what was needed.

While advertising was reduced, children still saw the same number of advertisements when watching the soaps and family entertainment programmes.

There had also been an increase in the number of channels available.

Chair of the National Heart Alliance David Kennedy said a recent survey commissioned by it showed that almost four in five Irish parents would agree to a ban on advertising of foods high in fat, sugar and salt up to 9pm. Nine out of 10 said advertising influenced their children’s food choices.

The group highlighted the nutrition difficulties caused by just giving a four-year-old a soft drink and a packet of crisps.

Spokeswoman for the Irish National Dietetic Institute, Margot Brennan, said such a child required about 1,400 calories a day.

“Having a soft drink and a packet of crisps means the child has to meet all their nutritional requirements from 1,000 calories, which is really difficult to do,” she said.

Ms Brennan said the child would also need to engage in two hours of physical activity to burn off the energy from the crisps and soft drink.

Previous surveys have shown that a fifth of Irish children’s energy intake from food comes from sweets, snacks and biscuits. It also found that children consumed about two soft drinks a day.