Cartoon characters should be banned from promoting junk food

The Health and Social Care Select Committee has called for a ban on “brand-generated characters or licensed TV and film characters” used to promote unhealthy foods.

It would mean characters like Tony the Tiger and the Milky Bar Kid would have to be dropped or used to promote healthier products.

And cartoon characters from popular movies would no longer appear on the packaging or adverts for fast food.

The MPs also urged the Government to ban junk food adverts before the 9pm TV watershed and for supermarkets to be forced to remove confectionery and other unhealthy snacks from the ends of aisles and checkouts.

Junk food price promotions should be restricted and the Government should give local authorities more powers to curb fast food outlets, the MPs said. The recommendations come in the committee’s latest report into childhood obesity.

Conservative MP Dr Sarah Wollaston, who chairs the committee, said: “Children are becoming obese at an earlier age and staying obese for longer.

“Obesity rates are highest for children from the most disadvantaged communities and this unacceptable health inequality has widened every year since records began.”

A third of children are overweight or obese by the time they leave primary school, according to official figures.

Dr Modi Mwatsama, of the Obesity Health Alliance, said: “This is a superb report that reflects what obesity campaigners have long been saying - the UK is in the midst of an obesity epidemic and the Government must take strong measures to tackle childhood obesity if we’re to prevent this spiralling beyond control.”

A Department for Health and Social Care spokeswoman said: “Childhood obesity is a complex problem, decades in the making.

“That’s why we have the most ambitious plan in the world to tackle it, our sugar tax is funding school sports programmes and nutritious breakfasts for the poorest children, and we’re investing in further research into the links between obesity and inequality.”