I’M going to be honest here: the Tunnock’s Caramel Log is not, and has never been, my biscuit of choice. My biscuit of choice would be the custard cream, the chocolate digestive and the plain digestive in that order. But even though the caramel log or the teacake could never make the official top three biscuits according to me, or even the top 10, when Tunnock’s, the grand old company of Scottish confectionery, needs defending, I’m here for it.

It needs defending because its adverts are about to be banned from TV before 9pm as part of the UK Government’s campaign to improve public health. The government says the ban is needed as the first step in a shift in focus on healthcare from sickness to prevention, and giving every child a healthy and happy start to life. So, no Tunnock’s ads before 9 o’clock.

We know why the government feels this is necessary: we have eyes and the official figures provide the proof. In 2003, according to the Scottish Government, one-quarter of adults in Scotland were obese. Now it’s one-third. And with obesity comes increased risk of cancer, diabetes and death and, as the UK Government points out, a cost of billions of pounds to the NHS. We are deep in a serious crisis that’s getting worse.

The question is how we get out of it and Tunnock’s feels it is being unfairly targeted. Its sales director Fergus Loudon said in Scottish Grocer magazine that the food industry was being blamed for societal problems that were not of its making. “Banning chocolate biscuit ads on TV before nine o’clock to prevent obesity,” he said, “is rather like banning foreign holidays to prevent skin damage from too much sun.”

A couple of things are going on here. First, it would be stupid to deny that food ads have an effect and that restricting ads can have some effect on what we buy and eat. The science........

© Herald Scotland