London's New Ad Ban on Public Transport Equates Olive Oil to Junk Food

In an effort to tackle child­hood obe­sity, the city of London has decided to ban food and drinks that are high in fat, sugar, or salt (HFSS) from appear­ing in adver­tise­ments on its pub­lic trans­port sys­tem.

The ad ban, which went into effect on February 25, was Mayor Sadiq Khan’s response to the research of Public Health England, which showed that more than 37 per­cent of 10 and 11-year-old chil­dren in London are over­weight.

“Child obe­sity is putting the lives of young Londoners at risk and plac­ing huge pres­sure on our already strained health ser­vice,” Khan said. ​“It is absolutely imper­a­tive that we take tough action against this tick­ing time bomb now, and reduc­ing expo­sure to junk food adver­tis­ing has a role to play in this.”

The move is endorsed by many, includ­ing celebrity chef Jamie Oliver and var­i­ous action groups, such as the Obesity Health Alliance, a coali­tion of more than 40 orga­ni­za­tions aim­ing to reduce obe­sity lev­els.

The ban pre­vents foods such as burg­ers, French fries, hot­dogs and many other unhealthy snacks and cook­ing ingre­di­ents from appear­ing in ads in the Transport for London (TfL) net­work based on a nutri­ent pro­fil­ing model score, which is man­aged by Public Health England.

The pro­fil­ing model pro­duces a score for each food accord­ing to the nutri­ents it con­tains per 100 grams (3.5 ounces) and deter­mines whether it is an HFSS prod­uct or not.

This means that com­mon cook­ing ingre­di­ents, such as soy sauce, but­ter, eggs and even olive oil, will face the adver­tise­ment ban.

There is also a list released by TfL of foods that are of par­tic­u­lar con­cern for obe­sity pre­ven­tion due to their calo­rie load, includ­ing bread filled with olives.

Critics argue that the major­ity of TfL pas­sen­gers are adults and warned that the restric­tion will cause seri­ous dam­age to TfL’s finances due to the imposed bar­ri­ers on prod­ucts eli­gi­ble for adver­tis­ing.

Andrew Boff, a mem­ber of the London Assembly who was autho­rized to scru­ti­nize the may­or’s activ­i­ties, spoke of a ​“reck­less” move at a time in which TfL faces a big deficit. He added that not only junk food will be impacted by the ban.

“It is not just junk food adverts which will be banned; Londoners will not be allowed to see adverts for every­day items, such as olive oil, stock cubes, and pesto,” he said.

With the new sys­tem, the onus is on the adver­tiser to demon­strate, in case of a doubt, that a prod­uct is non-HFSS com­pli­ant, should they want to dis­play it in posters and bill­boards in the under­ground and else­where.

A spokesper­son from TfL told Olive Oil Times that the pro­fil­ing model they use rec­og­nizes the ben­e­fits of a bal­anced diet, includ­ing pro­tein, fiber, fruit, veg­eta­bles and nuts.

“It also iden­ti­fies food with ingre­di­ents which chil­dren should reduce in their diet, such as sat­u­rated fat, salt and sugar,” the spokesper­son said. ​“If a prod­uct is deemed to be an HFSS prod­uct, then it can­not be used in adver­tis­ing in TfL’s net­work unless it has been granted an excep­tion.”

As far as olive oil is con­cerned, the spokesper­son spec­i­fied that it falls into the HFSS food cat­e­gory and there­fore is not cur­rently allowed to be shown in adver­tise­ments.

“Olive oil is not banned out­right, but we have restric­tions in place for prod­ucts that are HFSS,” the spokesper­son said. ​“Products such as olive oil are defined by the nutri­ent pro­fil­ing model as HFSS prod­ucts.”

However, the spokesper­son clar­i­fied that an exemp­tion from the ad ban for olive oil is almost cer­tain with the proper jus­ti­fi­ca­tion.

“If brands that have these prod­ucts [olive oil] want to adver­tise them on the TfL estate, we would be happy to receive an appli­ca­tion for an excep­tion based on the prod­uct not being con­sumed by chil­dren or pro­mot­ing an HFSS diet,” the spokesper­son said. ​“With clear infor­ma­tion, we would fully expect them to get an excep­tion.”

The spokesper­son also con­firmed that TfL has not yet received any excep­tion appli­ca­tions for olive oil.

• City AM


• Evening Standard


• The Independent