Unhealthy snacks to be banned from checkouts at supermarkets in England
Supermarkets in England are to be barred from displaying unhealthy food and drinks at checkouts or using them in buy one, get one free offers, as part of a proposed government crackdown on obesity.
The planned restrictions were praised by health campaigners as a “bold first step” in Downing Street’s promised campaign against obesity.
The checkout restrictions will apply to other sales-boosting locations such as the entrances to stores or at the end of aisles. Similar rules will apply for websites, banning sales links to unhealthy foods on places such as homepages, or at checkout or payment pages. Restaurants will no longer be able to offer free refills of sugary drinks.
The restrictions will not come into force until April 2022, and will be subject to a consultation process first.
All fine and dandy (and that last sentence gives them plenty of time for it to be quietly forgotten) but isn't this a classic example of the kind of nanny-state big government interference so despised by generations of Conservatives, and the very antithesis of the libertarian and entrepreneurial spirit that they espouse?