The IEA responds to the Obesity Health Alliance call to ban food products

Responding to the Obesity Health Alliance’s call to ban a range of food products from supermarket checkouts, aisles and entrances, Christopher Snowdon, Head of Lifestyle Economics at the Institute of Economic Affairs said:

“This policy is already part of this Government’s draconian obesity strategy. The Obesity Health Alliance is merely trying to drum up some ‘grass roots’ support for it in advance of the public consultation.

“Shopkeepers should be allowed to position their products wherever they want. It is their building, not the government’s. Retailers have a better idea of what people want than single issue campaigners and price promotions are a key lever of competition, ensuring that new products can be launched and surplus stock can be cleared.”

Notes to editors:

For media enquiries please contact Nerissa Chesterfield, Head of Communications: nchesterfield@iea.org.uk, 07791 390 268 | 020 7799 8920

For more IEA research on childcare policy, click here.

The mission of the Institute of Economic Affairs is to improve understanding of the fundamental institutions of a free society by analysing and expounding the role of markets in solving economic and social problems and seeks to provide analysis in order to improve the public understanding of economics.

The IEA is a registered educational charity and independent of all political parties.