SWEETS, crisps and sugary drinks should be in plain packaging to reduce “pester power” from kids, health campaigners say.
It would make the food look less appealing and is necessary to combat the obesity crisis, they insist.
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The Institute for Public Policy Research also calls for the products to be taxed, their adverts banned from daytime TV and for supermarkets to fund healthy cooking classes for customers.
Critics say plain packaging, like with cigarettes, will make shops “grey and boring” and do nothing for waistlines.
But the IPPR’s research found two decades of progress in reducing preventable disease has stalled since 2012.
Its Ending the Blame Game report also says the minimum smoking age should be raised from 18 to 21.
The IPPR’s Tom Kibasi said: “Plain packaging would help us all to make better choices and reduce the hassle of ‘pester power’ for busy parents.”
However, Christopher Snowdon, of the Institute of Economic Affairs, said: “Plain packaging hasn’t worked with cigarettes and there’s no reason to think it would work for anything else.”
And Matthew Lesh, of the Adam Smith Institute think tank, said: “The plain packing proposal would create a grey, boring, dystopian scene in our supermarkets and corner shops.
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“It is a totally unproven fantasy that people eat confectionery over fruit because of the packaging.”
He added: “Advertising encourages people to buy one brand over another brand.
“It does little to fundamentally change demand for a product.”
Cartoons lure kids to unhealthy foods
By Daniel Jones
HALF of food and drink products which use cartoons on packs to attract youngsters are high in fat, sugar or salt.
Some using TV and film characters are as much as 99 per cent sugar, such as Peppa Pig sweets, a study by London’s Queen Mary University found.
Of 526 popular products that have cartoons on the pack, 267 are rated high for at least one of fat, saturated fat, sugar or salt.
Nutritionist Dr Kawther Hashem said: “It’s shocking that companies are exploiting the health of children.”
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