The Scottish arm of the UK's Food and Drink Federation has said that moves to restrict the promotion of certain food and drink products that are high in fat, sugar and salt will 'detrimentally impact' small Scottish businesses.
The group said that the Scottish government's measures have been proposed without evidence that they will help contribute to tackling obesity.
"The promotion to adults of all foods is a fundamental commercial freedom," commented David Thomson, CEO of FDF Scotland. "It underpins the healthy, vibrant and innovative market for food and drink that shoppers love. They allow new products and brands to win space on supermarket shelves and help new food and drink products to get shoppers' attention."
Among the measures being implemented are curbs on sampling, and certain types of in-store marketing, which could impact small to medium sized Scottish enterprises hard, the group said.
Rise To The Challenge
“For more than ten years the food and drink industry has risen to Scotland's significant obesity challenge," said Thomson. "Favourite products have been reformulated to reduce sugar, calories, fat and salt. Portion sizes have been limited. Some of these principals have now been adopted across the UK as part of Public Health England's own reformulation programmes.
“Preventing companies from promoting reformulated, healthier options to consumers would be illogical; but that's what the Scottish Government wants to do. This is a bizarre and contradictory public health policy."
The FDF is encouraging the government to make more efforts to work alongside the industry to "make a real difference" to the health of Scottish citizens.
© 2019 European Supermarket Magazine – your source for the latest retail news. Article by Stephen Wynne-Jones. Click subscribe to sign up to ESM: European Supermarket Magazine.
