Letter: Support the Children's Food Bill

The junk food ban announced by education secretary Ruth Kelly will meanvending machines in schools will not be allowed to sell chocolates,crisps or fizzy drinks, and school meals will no longer includelow-quality foods high in fat, salt and sugar, and reformed orreconstituted foods made from "meat slurry" (Children Now, 5-11October).

But a ban on junk foods needs to be backed up by an effectivegovernment-funded healthy eating campaign to compete with all the junkfood advertising shown during children's television, if children andtheir parents are to be educated to eat more healthily.

The proposed ban is a step in the right direction but does not go farenough. Therefore, we strongly support the passage of the Children'sFood Bill. It aims to improve children's current and future health andprevent food-related ill-health, such as childhood obesity and the manyother diseases that are linked to children's unhealthy diets. Itproposes the introduction of a range of common sense statutory measuresto improve the quality of children's food, while ending commercialactivities that market junk food and drinks to children.