Beat Me Harder! Punish Me!

Food firms should be forced to reveal how healthy or unhealthy their products are, to help people consume a better diet, an industry boss has said. Ministers should compel companies to publish an annual report so consumers can see how much of their sales is made up of dishes that contain too much fat, salt and sugar, Stéfan Descheemaeker also said. Descheemaeker is the chief executive of Nomad Foods, which owns popular brands such as Birds Eye fish fingers, Findus frozen foods and Goodfella’s pizzas.

If you're the CEO, can't you do this without government compulsion, then, Stefan? 

He told the Guardian that mandatory publication of what proportion of each firm’s sales count as healthy or unhealthy under government guidelines would kickstart a “nutrition arms race” in which manufacturers would vie with each other to make their products better for health.

Ah, I suspect he thinks this is a game he could win, and he wants competitors to be forced to enter. 

His comments underline what one diet campaigner called the “quiet revolution” going on in the industry in its views on how best to tackle the UK’s addiction to unhealthy food. More and more manufacturers want the government to now order the sector to improve its behaviour, rather than relying on voluntary agreements as the Conservatives did during their 14 years in power.

So why don't they do it without government compulsion? I really cannot understand modern business leaders...  

For the last seven years Nomad has published figures showing the percentage of its net sales that are deemed healthy under the government’s nutrient profiling model of judging which products contain the right or wrong amounts of fat, salt and sugar. It was now at 93.3% overall healthy, he said, according to the official high in fat, sugar or salt (HFSS) assessment system. Public disclosure of food firms’ sales would enable the creation of league tables that would allow those whose products are more often unhealthy to be named and shamed, backers say.

See? Stefan thinks the gold medal will be his! Is that why he wants government compulsion?

Tesco, Sainsbury’s, Iceland and the yoghurt maker Danone have already made clear they back mandatory reporting.

*baffled face* If they thought it was a winner with the shopping public, they'd do it, wouldn't they?

It Seems The 'One Drop' Concept Is Alive And Well...

Ros Griffiths, a 57-year-old community organiser in London, was initially hopeful when Meghan Markle married into the British royal family. She regarded their wedding and Meghan’s initial acceptance into the family as a step in the right direction for the institution.

This is Ros Griffiths. 

This is Meghan Markle.

 See any resemblance? Nope, me neither!

“That’s what I thought initially. Then it went all downhill very quickly,” said Griffiths. “I think [the documentary] further compounded what I suspected all along – that this family that lives off the public purse is not reflective of society.”

I didn't realise that 'race grifter' wasn't somehow also 'living off the public purse'. Who knew? Ming you, she's not the only one...

Natasha Mulenga, a 32-year-old writer and host of the podcast A Soulful Storm, said: “It’s changed my opinion more towards the negative. So much information has come out that really has made me doubt whether the institution can be reformed.”

She also pointed to the recent incident involving Ngozi Fulani, the black charity boss who said she was repeatedly questioned about her background by the late queen’s former lady-in-waiting.

Mmmm, yeah, about that, Natasha...