Employees told they shouldn’t bring cake to the office

Professor Susan Jebb said while it is a choice to eat sweet treats, people can help each other by providing a ‘supportive environment’

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The head of the UK’s top food watchdog has compared bringing cake into the office to passive smoking, and advised employees against it.

Professor Susan Jebb, chairwoman of the Food Standards Agency, also lamented that the advertising of junk food is “undermining people’s free will”.

She said while it is a choice to eat sweet treats, people can help each other by providing a “supportive environment”.

She told The Times: “We all like to think we’re rational, intelligent, educated people who make informed choices the whole time, and we undervalue the impact of the environment.

“If nobody brought cakes into the office, I would not eat cakes in the day, but because people do bring cakes in, I eat them. Now, OK, I have made a choice, but people were making a choice to go into a smoky pub.

“With smoking, after a very long time we have got to a place where we understand that individuals have to make some effort but that wecan make their efforts more successful by having a supportive environment.

“We still don’t feel like that about food.”

The newspaper reported that Professor Jebb insisted restrictions on advertising junk food were “not about the nanny state” but would instead tackle what she described as a “complete market failure” where sweet goods take precedence over vegetables.

“The businesses with the most money have the biggest influence on people’s behaviour. That’s not fair…we’ve ended up with a complete market failure, because what you get advertised is chocolate and not cauliflower,” she said.

Her advice sparked a debate on Good Morning Britain, with host Ed Balls calling the suggstion “ridiculous”. To prove a point, he gladly accepted a flapjack made by ITV cameraman Mark.

In a later statement to The Independent, Professor Jebb said that her views were made in a “personal capacity” and were not shared by the FSA board or going to influence policy.

Additional reporting by Press Association