The Government has issued new advice to limit the amount of treats for children to two 100-calorie items a day amid growing health fears.
The move is aimed at combating a growing obesity problem among children, which now sees a third of children reportedly leaving primary school obese or overweight.
But it rules out an array of popular packets of snacks, including crisps at 190 calories, pastries at 270, ice creams at 175 and chocolate at 240.
The advice came from Public Health England. Its chief nutritionist Dr Alison Tedstone said: “We’ve developed a simple rule of thumb to help families move towards healthier snacking… look for 100 calories snacks, two a day max.”
PHE’s Orla Hugueniot insisted there was no ban on giving kids snacks but urged parents to use the traffic lights guide on food packaging that indicates the levels of unhealthy products such as sugar, salt and fat.
She added: “It’s a really simple way of bringing down the amount of sugar in children’s diets.
“We are not saying they can never give children a chocolate or biscuit ever again. But it cannot be a daily occurrence.
“If it is they are going to be eating far more sugar than they need.”
Obesity Health Alliance Lead Caroline Cerny said: “It’s all too easy to eat more sugar than is good for us.
“Particularly when everyday foods are loaded with sugar. This is contributing to high levels of childhood obesity. We need all sectors of the food industry to reduce sugar in products.”
PHE has issued its Change4Life food charts showing how much sugar, salt and fat is in food. It also urged parents to swap sugary snacks for healthier food such as fruit. It comes days after it emerged PHE plans to reduce the recommended daily calorie intake from 2,000 for women and 2,500 to men to 1,600. There are no such child guidelines.
The latest advice has not gone down well with all. Christopher Snowdon of the Institute of Economic Affairs think-tank said: “No one would argue against healthy snacks but these arbitrary limits are an insult to people’s intelligence.”
The Food and Drink Fe deration added: “We recognise obesity is a major challenge. Manufacturers have reduced the sugar, salt, fat and calories in products, and there is now a greater variety of healthier products available to shoppers than ever before.”
The following list of snacks has been compiled by the Mirror .
KP Original Salted Peanuts (90g) - 552 calories
KitKat (21g) - 106 calories
Cadbury Dairy Milk Chocolate Bar (45g) - 240 calories
Tesco jam doughnut (70g) - 225 calories
Crunchie (40g) - 187 calories
McVitie’s Club bar (22g) - 116 calories
Tracker Bar (37g) - 178 calories
Mr Kipling Bakewell Tart (47g) - 200 calories
Walkers Ready Salted Crisps (25g) - 132 calories
Kellogg’s Nutrigrain Bar (37g) - 131 calories
Flame Grilled McCoy’s crisps (27g) - 142 calories
Mars Bar (51g) - 228 calories
Greggs regular sausage roll - 330 calories
Cadbury mini roll (27g) - 115 calories
Monster Munch Grab Bag (40g) - 197 calories
Twirl (43g) - 230 calories
Mini Cheddars (25g) - 128 calories
Cornetto Strawberry Ice Cream Cone (90ml) - 161 calories
Hula Hoops (24g) - 121 calories
Naked Bar (35g) - 145 calories
Jammie Dodger (single: 18g) - 77 calories
Twiglets snack bag (24g) - 94 calories
Cheesestring (20g) - 61 calories
Snack a Jacks (88g) - 89 calories
Mini Babybel (20g) - 61 calories
Jaffa Cake (single: 12g) - 46 calories
Frazzles (18g) - 87 calories
Metcalfe’s Topcorn (17g) - 77 calories
Fruit YoYo (20g) - 27 calories Skips (13g) - 71 calories Frubes (40g) - 36 calories
Nature Valley Popcorn and Peanut Bar (20g)
- 92 calories
Green & Black's Mini chocolate bar (15g) - 85 calories
Tesco Chocolate Rice Cake (17.5g) - 84 calories
Muller Light Strawberry Yoghurt (175g) - 89 calories
Funsize Mini Malteasers (19.5g) - 98 calories
Kelloggs Special K Cereal Bar (21.5g) - 83 calories
Oreo Sandwich Biscuit (11g) - 53 calories
'Unhealthy food hard to avoid... it’s everywhere'
By PROFESSOR SUSAN JEBB
'Snacks such as crisps, chocolate, sweets and ice cream contain lots of calories but few essential nutrients, so it makes sense to remind parents that these should be occasional treats and not everyday items.
But the reality is that it’s hard for families to buck the snacking trends.
Snacks abound, not just in grocery stores and cafes, but in vending machines, at petrol stations and an increasing number of non-food shops such as clothing stores and DIY chains. Few of the items on offer would meet the PHE standard for a healthy snack. We are prompted to desire them through mass advertising on billboards, TV and online.
While PHE might recommend a limit of 100 calories per item, it’s difficult to find single bags of crisps, bars of chocolate or an ice cream in such small sizes.
Yes, parents are responsible for feeding their children and it would be good to see more kids enjoying fruit, but it shouldn’t be this hard to find healthier snacks.
Government and industry need to think twice about what they could do to make life healthier for all of us.'