Matt Kilcoyne

Jamie Oliver and the mad ad ban

Jamie Oliver

There have been a great many political betrayals of late, but there is nothing worse than seeing the government propose a policy that makes Jamie Oliver this happy. The celebrity chef’s face lit up when he appeared on Sky and Channel 4 News this week, as he relished the fact that the government is going to ban all adverts for anything considered to be high-fat, high-salt, and high-sugar on TV before 9pm and online.

Jamie Oliver told Channel 4 News’ Jon Snow that ‘the cost of ill-health in society… is an economic conversation. Having a fitter, healthier, more agile Britain is absolutely more profitable.’

Oliver is certainly one to talk about profitability. In May last year, 22 of his restaurants closed, with the loss of 1,000 jobs. When his establishments ran out of money Oliver’s debts were covered by the taxpayer and suppliers were left out of pocket. He’s still estimated to be worth around £100m personally though. At one of Jamie Oliver’s only remaining restaurants, at Gatwick airport where your choice is heavily restricted, he charges twice as much for kids to have fruit for dessert than a ‘jumbo’ scoop of ice cream laden with chocolate sauce.

As it happens, I am the kind of person that he and Matt Hancock are most worried about. My Instagram is full of food adverts because I love looking at food online. I normally get to see mouth-watering adverts for roast Herdwick lamb from Lake District farmers, delicious English fudge, and cheese from Neal’s Yard. These producers have built their followings from scratch and have worked hard to create businesses that gives customers what they want.

Yet all of these products are under threat from the government’s plan. Under the current proposals, a new nutrient profile will assess whether a food is ‘good’ or high in fat, salt or sugar, in which case it will fall foul of the censors.

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