Forget cakes in the office – it’s home workers we should be worried about

After debates about the dangers of work-based snacking, Will Gore considers a missing ingredient

Can-dough attitude: we all need the occasional treat (Getty/iStock)

There has been a lot of chatter about office cake in recent days, after a po-faced interjection by the chair of the Food Standards Agency, Professor Susan Jebb.

Professor Jebb, apparently speaking in a personal capacity – lest it be thought her po-facedness were the result of having been institutionalised – expressed concern that regular office treats are impossible for workers to resist and thus have a detrimental impact on Britain’s obesity problem. She even went on to make a comparison with passive smoking, at least insofar as the choices of one individual (the cake-bringer) affect the health of others (the helpless cake-scoffers). Mr Kipling would be spinning in his grave, had he not been invented by an exceedingly good marketing executive.

The professor’s call to stop the endless supply of goodies has divided opinion. Those who agree have noted that our apparent inability to keep our hands out of a communal box of biscuits is as much to do with politeness as gluttony. After all, if someone brings in a gloopy gateau to mark their birthday, one can’t possibly say no to a modest slice or three. In this version, we have a collective responsibility to look after the health of the nation.