Cereal firm Kellogg’s is launching a legal challenge against the government in response to new regulations on how food high in fat and sugar is displayed in supermarkets. The food giant argues that breakfast cereals are being unfairly targeted.
From October new rules will come into effect in England restricting the promotion of food and drink high in fat, salt and sugar, in efforts to tackle childhood obesity. This would impact sugary breakfast cereals.
Under the new regulations supermarkets will be stopped from selling unhealthy food and drinks on special offers and from displaying them at checkouts. It will also impact the locations of certain products - including promoting them at the end of aisles.
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But Kellogg’s says that the government’s evaluation fails to take into account that cereal is served with milk, changing the nutritional value. The company, which produces popular brands including Crunchy Nut Corn Flakes, argues that overall content of the meal should be evaluated.
In a statement Kellogg’s said that it had “tried to have a reasonable conversation with Government” without success. The company is now taking this further by launching a legal challenge.
Chris Silcock, the company’s UK managing director, said: “We believe the formula being used by the Government to measure the nutritional value of breakfast cereals is wrong and not implemented legally. It measures cereals dry when they are almost always eaten with milk.
“All of this matters because, unless you take account of the nutritional elements added when cereal is eaten with milk, the full nutritional value of the meal is not measured.”
A Department of Health and Social Care spokesman said: “Breakfast cereals contribute 7 per cent – a significant amount – to the average daily free sugar intakes of children. “Restricting the promotion and advertising of less healthy foods is an important part of the cross-government strategy to halve childhood obesity by 2030, prevent harmful diseases and improve healthy life expectancy, so we can continue to level up health across the nation.”
The spokesman added that obesity costs the NHS more than £6 billion a year and is the second biggest cause of cancer in the UK.
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