True: Shops will not be allowed to display sweets and chocolates at checkouts in the UK.

By: Devika Kandelwal
July 27 2020

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This decision was taken as part of Boris Johnson's 'Better Health' campaign, aimed at tackling obesity across Britain. As part of his 'Better Health' campaign, Boris Johnson laid out certain plans to tackle obesity in the U.K. One of them is to remove junk food items from checkouts. A survey carried out by Obesity Health Alliance in 2018 showed that around 43% of all food and drink products located in prominent areas, such as store entrances, checkouts, and aisle ends, were for sugary foods and drinks. Less than 1% of food and drink products promoted in high profile locations in the store were fruit or vegetables. The location of products within stores significantly affect our purchases. 'Buy one get one free' deals on unhealthy food will be banned and restrictions are to be placed on where foods high in fat and sugar can be promoted in-store, and new rules have been introduced to display calorie menus. A ban has also been placed on displaying junk food adverts before 21:00. Boris Johnson also unveiled this plan as there is growing evidence of a link between obesity and an increased risk from Covid-19. The BBC reported that the government statistics showed nearly 8% of critically ill patients in intensive care units with the coronavirus have been morbidly obese, compared with 2.9% of the general population.