Poll: Should the advertising of junk food be banned?
The Government should introduce stronger rules on junk food advertising to save parents from pester power, a charity has said.
A poll of 1,000 parents for the British Heart Foundation (BHF) found 74% are frequently asked by their children to buy them junk food.
Some 42% of parents said their children were triggered by junk food available at supermarket checkouts, while 26% said offers such as buy-one-get-one-free made their children pester them.
Almost four in 10 (38%) said their children were influenced by TV adverts for junk food, while 24% were affected by other advertising, such as banners in shop windows.
Almost one in three (30%) said food packaging, including the use of cartoon characters, influenced their children's desire for junk food.
As the Government prepares to publish its anti-obesity strategy, the BHF said tighter regulations were needed to make being healthy the easy choice.
The charity wants a ban on the advertising of unhealthy products on TV before the 9pm watershed as well as official guidelines on portion sizes.
Sugar-sweetened drinks should also face a specific tax, the charity said.
Mike Hobday, director of policy at the BHF, said: "Parents want their children to be healthy, but at every step, the food and drinks industry are aggressively targeting children as consumers, and turning the checkout into a junk food battleground.
"The odds and the shelves are literally stacked against families."
The BHF said loopholes in the UK regulatory system mean that junk food adverts which are banned during children's programmes can still be shown during family programmes, such as The X Factor.
Its poll also found that while most parents feel they have control over what their children eat and drink at home, 75% do not always know what is eaten when they are not there.
