Posted on 01/02/2007 9:47:39 PM PST by neverdem
Cheese is to be treated as junk food under new advertising rules for children's television.
Commercials promoting it will be banned during children's TV programmes and those with a large proportion of young viewers.
The rules, which come into force this month, are part of a Government drive to reduce children's exposure to foods high in fat, salt and sugar.
Much to the disgust of its makers, cheese is to be regarded in the same light as crisps, sugary cereals and cheeseburgers.
In fact, under the criteria used by the Food Standards Agency to determine junk foods, such products are actually regarded as healthier than cheese.
The ban follows evidence that TV commercials have an indirect influence on what children eat and are contributing to obesity in the young.
The Food Standards Agency model assesses the fat, sugar and salt content in a 100g or 100ml serving of food or drink.
But the British Cheese Board points out that a typical portion of cheese was 30 to 40g - not the 100g used in the agency's model.
Most cheese would be exempt from the ban if a typical portion had been used in the calculations, according to the board.
It pointed out that cheese was one of the most 'nutritionally complete' foods.
The National Farmers' Union described the decision as ' nannying gone mad'.
'To suggest there is anything inherently harmful about cheese is absurd,' spokesman Anthony Gibson said.
'There is no such thing as a bad food. It is just how much of it you eat, in what balance and how much exercise you take.'
He said the new rules were 'of no use to consumers', adding: 'It may very well put them off eating healthy things.'
Mary Quicke, who runs Quickes Cheese in Devon, producing handmade cheddar, said the rules had left her 'speechless'. ' Frankly, i t's bonkers,' she told BBC Radio 4's Today programme.
She said the FSA's decision to assess cheese using a 100g portion was ridiculous. 'Imagine eating 100 grams of cheese - that's four ounces. You would have to be a pretty dedicated eater of cheese to get around that.'
Other foods banned from advertising during children's TV include: Marmite, Flora Lite, half-fat cheddar, Dairylea triangles, bran flakes, camembert, sugar-coated puffed wheat, instant hot oat cereal, Jaffa cakes, reduced calorie mayonnaise, multi-grain hoop cereal, half-fat creme fraiche, takeaway chicken nuggets, potato waffles, Greek yoghurt (from sheep's milk), ham, sausages, bacon rashers, low-fat spreads, peanuts, cashew nuts, pistachio-nuts, peanut butter, raisins, sultanas, currants, low-fat potato crisps, olive oil, butter, pizza, hamburgers, tomato ketchup, chocolate, brown sauce, cola and lemonade.
Foods which escape the ban include: Plain fromage frais, fish fingers, lasagne ready meals, currant buns, malt loaf, frozen roast potatoes, chicken curry with rice ready meal, frozen oven chips, sliced white bread, cottage cheese, supermarket frozen chicken nuggets, milk, brazil nuts, canned strawberries in syrup, diet cola and chocolate-flavoured milk.
Swiss, Provolone, Parmesan, Stilton, Limburger, Roka Blue, or Velveeta?
Do they include that yellow liquid plastic-goop at Take-A-Smell Taco Bell?
What they mean by "cheese" DOES make a difference.
Is the "strong, red wine" to kill the flavor of the cheese, or that of the sardine bread?
Ahhh! An excellent fishing cheese.Your lunch and bait , all rolled into one!
Doubt I could eat it. Have to be awfully hungry.
Just so you know it goes for about $32.00 the pound in Vermont.We had 4 ounces of it over Xmas, cost us $8.00. So if you gave away a whole round , well, your charity is overwhelming!
I am sure your Mother-in-law would have loved the fruit cake, especially if you rummed it up.She is British I take it?
This cheese can be a health risk and is expensive (on black market as EU bureaucrats has banned it of course):
From Wikipedia
"Piophila casei larvae can pass through the stomach alive (human stomach acids do not usually kill them) and take up residency for some period of time in the intestines, where they can cause serious lesions as they attempt to bore through the intestinal walls."
That is why strong red wine and thorough chewing might be recommended. On the other hand, when larvae are not moving it can mean that cheese is not good for consumption anymore.
No, she's not British. Every year she sends us some kind of food which we don't like, and always expensive. (Trust me, it's just her way of saying she has the "class" we can't afford.) The fruitcake (a Safeway special) would have sent her a message for sure! I had the decency not to send it. You'd have to know this woman to understand.
OK. That's to adventurous for me! I wonder, in making up a place setting, where does one put the 'eye protection'? To the right of the butter knife?
Give me a can of squirt cheese and a tube of ritz crackers and I'm happy.
But I never lucked out to the point we got a Stilton Cheese! LOL.
But I can tell you that smoked herring makes a pretty good retaliatory gift.
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FReepmail me if you want on or off my health and science ping list.
Sort of like the Japanese Puffer fish, but that can kill you immediately if the poison glands are not cut out. Being eaten from the inside out does put a certain panache into how one would consume this cheese!
Several dozens of these in a creamy cheese somehow puts the appetite down, obviously this fomaggio is an acquired taste! 
We call fly larvae maggots here in Indiana. And yes, stuff with maggots alive or dead can be a health risk! We try to throw it out before it gets that bad here.
Not original to me, but thanks.
Thanks for the ping. The nanny's are really going too far when they start picking on CHEESE!
Nope, not gonna say it, wouldn't be prudent...
Everyone will live forever once we get that hellish sludge called mothers milk banned.
It's a proven fact that eating rocks and sand and bark is gud fur ya!
If they put Jack on the list, it would be the last list they ever made. Oh, wait... They weren't talking about Mr. Bauer? Never mind.:)
If that is just a thin crust cheese pizza, it has about 1600 calories. The calorie count goes up quickly as ingredients are added.
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