The chief of Britain’s food regulator says people should stop bringing cake into the office for the sake of their colleagues’ health. The chairwoman of the Food Standards Agency (FSA) says bringing sweet treats into the work environment should be seen as harmful to your colleagues in the same way as passive smoking.
Professor Susan Jebb explained that while it’s people's individual choice as to whether or not they want to eat these types of food, people should be creating a 'supportive environment' in the workplace by not bringing them in.
“We all like to think we’re rational, intelligent, educated people who make informed choices the whole time, and we undervalue the impact of the environment,” she told the Times.
“If nobody brought cakes into the office, I would not eat cakes in the day, but because people do bring cakes in, I eat them. Now, OK, I have made a choice, but people were making a choice to go into a smoky pub.”
While she says the two issues are not identical, Prof Jebb says that passive smoking inflicts harm on others “and exactly the same is true of food”.
Prof Jebb, who spoke to the newspaper in a personal capacity rather than FSA head, said: “With smoking, after a very long time we have got to a place where we understand that individuals have to make some effort but that we can make their efforts more successful by having a supportive environment. We still don’t feel like that about food.”
She also added that the advertising of junk food is 'undermining people’s free will', insisting restrictions on advertising junk food were 'not about the nanny state' but would instead tackle what she described as a 'complete market failure' where sweet treats take precedence over healthier food options such as vegetables.
“The businesses with the most money have the biggest influence on people’s behaviour," Prof Jebb added. "That’s not fair … we’ve ended up with a complete market failure, because what you get advertised is chocolate and not cauliflower.”
Governments have continuously failed to introduce a ban on pre-watershed TV advertising for junk food, with the current prime minister, Rishi Sunak’s new administration announcing in December that the measure to combat obesity will not come into action until 2025.
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