Junk over and out?

Perhaps the end of the junk food saga, the one that started for me at reference 1. 

I read this afternoon at reference 2 that the government really is serious about cracking down on obesity, particularly among the young, and is going to massively restrict the advertising of food deemed to be junk, that is to say with too much of anything in the way of energy, sugar, fat or salt.

While the business people who are going to be hit are saying both that the ban will not affect the facts on the ground and that it will to terrible things to various parts of the media world. While the rest of us wonder what effect taking out all that money presently paid by the consumers of said food to, in effect, subsidise the media services that the rest of us consume is going to be.

And it brings out the nerd in me. I want to at least see the small print, some of which is to be found at references 3 and 4. From the second of these I learn that the basic idea is simple enough: you score a product by subtracting the good points (fibre and stuff) from the bad points (sugar and stuff). The answer is the score and if the score is big enough, restrictions apply. All done on a per 100g basis: big packet does not mean big score. Lots of nice details for the food scientists (and the lawyers) to get stuck into over the coming months.

One of the worked examples from reference 4 is included above. That fruit and nut cereal bar which you thought was ever so healthy fails!

PS 1: following on, I guess, from similar initiatives on tobacco and alcohol.

PS 2: I offer a puzzle from a recent number of the TLS. Why is it that cricket was a very popular game in Ireland in the late nineteenth century, but is now all but extinct? While another English game, rugby, thrives?

References

Reference 1: https://psmv5.blogspot.com/2024/11/trolleys-763-thru-765.html.

Reference 2: UK junk food ad ban includes porridge and pitta bread snacks: Unhealthy foods cannot be shown online or before 9pm under new rules to cut childhood obesity - Daniel Thomas, Financial Times - 2024.

Reference 3: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/restricting-advertising-of-less-healthy-food-or-drink-on-tv-and-online-products-in-scope/restricting-advertising-of-less-healthy-food-or-drink-on-tv-and-online-products-in-scope.

Reference 4: https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/media/5a7cdac7e5274a2c9a484867/dh_123492.pdf. 'Nutrient Profiling Technical Guidance - Department of Health - 2011'.