| Health organisations outraged by Trading Standards
treatment of Tesco
The Health
Promotion Agency (HPA), Action Cancer and the Ulster Cancer
Foundation have joined forces to protest against
Trading Standards officials from Shropshire County Council.
The issue that has prompted this protest is the
forthcoming
prosecution
of Tesco for labelling fruit and vegetables with health messages
on cancer prevention.
Speaking at a press conference held this
morning at the HPA, Chief Executive, Dr Brian Gaffney,
said: “The
prosecution seems ludicrous. We feel this is badly advised
behaviour by these local councils and the principal it is
based on should not go unchallenged. Tesco are encouraging
their customers to eat at least five portions of fruit and
veg a day advising them that this can help prevent cancer.
We know from an overwhelming amount of research that eating
400grams (five portions) or more of fruit and vegetables
each day can reduce the risk of developing cancer by as much
as 20%.1,2
“This is a crucial health message which the public
needs to be aware of and we welcome the support we have received
over the years from Tesco and other food retailers in Northern
Ireland with their help in getting this information across.
Supermarkets are the obvious partners to be involved in getting
information to the public when and where food is uppermost
in peoples’ minds. They are the most appropriate venues
for healthy eating messages to be displayed. This negative
approach could have the affect of limiting the success of
our communication with the public and could even set our
work in developing such useful partnerships back by years.”
Arlene Spiers, Chief Executive, Ulster Cancer
Foundation, said: “The evidence on diet and cancer
prevention is overwhelming. We have known for many years
that eating a
diet rich in fruit and vegetables significantly protects
against many cancers including colo-rectal, stomach and bladder
cancer.
“Along with tobacco, the healthy eating message is
central to UCF’s Cancer Prevention Strategy. Over a
number of years in our healthy eating programmes for adults
and children, we have worked in partnership with a range
of wholesalers and retailers. Their support provides a crucial
vehicle to convey these messages to key audiences. If this
legal action continues it could undermine many years of our
life saving work. The UCF believes that it is absolutely
ridiculous that such petty bureaucracy could prevent such
a major improvement to the health of our community.”
Robin McRoberts, Chief Executive of Action Cancer, stated
during the press conference:
“Given that two out of every three cancers could be prevented by changes
to our diet and lifestyle, it seems ridiculous that we should be prevented from
taking potentially lifesaving messages about food to the most obvious place – right
where the customer makes their selection… in supermarkets. More needs to
be done to raise people’s awareness of the relationship between what they
eat and their chances of getting cancer. We must therefore take every opportunity
to keep this to the forefront of everyone’s thinking. ”
Dr Gaffney concluded: “The five a day
message has been communicated worldwide by many countries.
We have been
promoting the same message for a number of years and will
continue to do so. We are calling for the law to be updated
appropriately so that such a potentially damaging situation
cannot arise again.”
END
Notes to Editors:
There will be a press conference on Wednesday
2 June at 11.00am when Dr Brian Gaffney, Chief Executive, HPA,
Arlene Spiers, Chief Executive, Ulster Cancer Foundation, and
Robin McRoberts, Chief Executive, Action Cancer, will be available
for interview.
- World Cancer Research Fund in association
with American Institute for Cancer Research. Food, Nutrition
and the Prevention of Cancer: A Global Perspective. Washington:
American Institute for Cancer Research, 1997.
- Department of Health: Nutritional Aspects of the Development
of Cancer. Report of the Working Group on Diet and Cancer
of the Committee on Medical Aspects of Food and Nutrition
Policy.
Report on Health and Social Subjects Number 48. London:
The Stationery Office, 1998.
For more information on this release contact
Jenny Dougan on 028 9031 1611 or 028 9031 1514.
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