Municipalities will have the ability to ban new snack bars from neighborhoods where there is already a large supply of unhealthy food. They can also keep new fast food restaurants out of schools.
These measures are contained in a bill presented by State Secretary Maarten van Ooijen (Public Health, Welfare and Sport). This was confirmed by sources in The Hague after a message from RTL news.
The minister had already said in March that he wanted to counter the “proliferation” of fast food. It is one of the measures against obesity that he wants to adopt. At present, one in seven children is very overweight. In some poor neighborhoods, this is even true for one in three.
At the time, Van Ooijen sketched out the framework that parents and children in some neighborhoods must endure “a hedgerow of temptations” on their way to school. It’s not yet the intention of municipalities to reduce that unhealthy supply, but they do want to prevent expansion.
