A ban on junk food adverts being shown on TV before 21:00 will come into force on 1 October 2025, the government has confirmed. Will it work I ask?

Labour said the watershed on junk food advertising would be enforced alongside a total ban on paid-for online adverts, both aimed at tackling childhood obesity.

And Labour claims;

While there is no single solution to tackling the widespread causes of obesity, we estimate that these advertising restrictions will remove up to 7.2 billion calories from children’s diets per year and help prevent around 20,000 cases of childhood obesity. The health benefits are estimated at around £2billion. 

The Royal Society for Public Health (RSPH), which works to reduce childhood obesity, called the advertising ban a "welcome step".

Simon Dixon, head of policy and public affairs at the RSPH told the BBC that childhood nutrition is

"a long-term priority" that is "key to building a healthier future for the next generation".

Evidence is out there to suggest this is a good first step in prevention.

Cancer Research UK’s chief executive, Michelle Mitchell, said: 

“The world around us heavily influences what we eat and drink, so it’s also positive to see wider commitments by the UK Government to limit junk food advertising on TV and online, and explore further measures to tackle childhood obesity. This is vital progress towards reducing the number of preventable cases of cancer, and in turn, saving lives.”

According to the Bite Back campaign, children in the UK are exposed to 15 billion junk food adverts online and 3.6 billion on TV every year !! That's crazy !

Banning these advertisements is a costly enforcement for our UK Government and food manufacturers will always find a loophole to sell their ultra-processed rubbish, but it is a step in helping to reduce the amount of this rubbish a child is subjected to seeing on television and online on a daily basis and that can only be seen as a good intervention to begin with.

But so much more needs to be done and put in place if our childhood obesity statistics are to be reduced, children are influenced by advertising of that there is no doubt, but children are also influenced a great deal more by education.

Nutrition needs to be taught in schools, beginning in Primary Schools, because they are foundations for lifelong learning. It’s time to teach nutrition in our schools and government campaigns such as bans on junk food adverts, would have a much greater impact on educated children who know what these foods can do to their body if eaten in excess.

Film produced by Cancer Research UK