Food and drinks aimed at children can no longer be endorsed by celebrities - even if they were reared on Pop Tarts, writes Róisín Ingle.
You can almost hear food expert John McKenna's mouth water as he recalls some of the staple dishes he ate as a child growing up in the 1960s in Co Down. Sugar and butter sandwiches, lemon meringue pie from a packet and later, as a law student in Dublin, steak and kidney pie eaten straight from the tin with the choice of spaghetti hoops or baked beans.
"There was also great excitement in our house when we discovered Smash instant potato, you just added hot water to make this sludge that was apparently a close relative to the noble spud. When we were young, life was too short to peel a potato," he says.
The planned introduction of the new code, which will restrict advertising aimed at children in an attempt to reduce the intake of fast and unhealthy food, is one response to the notion that these days life seems too short for some children even to boil a kettle for instant mash. Drawn up by the Broadcasting Commission of Ireland (BCI) and expected to be implemented by July, it will ban celebrities from promoting food or drink products and issue health warnings on certain ads. Not surprisingly, it's giving many people food for thought.
But McKenna feels the code does not go far enough. "It's a compromise which will no doubt be watered down even further when the food industry uses weasel words to explain why they don't want it implemented," he says. "Senior people in Irish food will tell you that people in the mainstream food industry now know about the products they are selling what the tobacco industry knew about cigarettes 30 years ago. Their products create high blood pressure, obesity and diabetes. I would support a total ban on children-targeted food and drink advertising".
The Minister for Health and Children, Micheál Martin, says: "Nobody has really analysed who or what is influencing human behaviour in relation to this issue. We have to become more conscious of the need to protect children, to look at what they are exposed to - because these days they are bombarded relentlessly by messages associated with food and drink."
As a youngster, the Minister loved his mother's cooking. "She made custard slices with lovely thick motherly custard on them which I am still partial to," he remembers. "And semolina was always a big favourite. It's still on the menu at the Dáil on occasion; there are a few Fianna Fáil TDs who love semolina and I like it with a bit of jam in the middle."
While in his day he's eaten his fair share of cavity-inducing penny sweets and toffees, he believes his own children have a less healthy diet than he did as a child.
"We didn't have the same access or exposure to such a wide range of goods, so our diet was more rationed," he says.
Progressive Democrats TD Fiona O'Malley, whose remarks about obesity caused a storm recently - she said obese people should take responsibility for their condition - describes the code as a "step in the right direction".
"There is no such thing as bad food, just bad eating habits," she says. "Having said that, I really feel strongly that celebrities or those to whom young people look up should be banned from putting their name to unhealthy food or drink products." As one of six children growing up in Limerick, her childhood food memories are of ginger cake and other home-made goodies.
"We didn't get biscuits because my mother said that with six of us a packet wouldn't last long," she says. She remembers being delighted when her parents had parties because there would always be packets of Ritz crackers "with that lovely oil paper packaging". Fizzy cola bottles, gobstoppers, apple drops and sweet cigarettes were other favourites.
Dr Patrick Wall, adjunct professor of Food Safety at UCD and former chief executive of the Food Safety Authority, says it's impossible to treat a child now because it's "Christmas every day for them when it comes to snacks and sweets".
He says parental responsibility is a significant factor in the debate.
"You wouldn't leave your kids alone with a stranger but you are happy to let Rupert Murdoch blast away at them from 90 channels," says Dr Wall. In his opinion, the code does not go far enough but he says it's "a good start".
"There are a number of issues here. Companies are pushing indulgence foods or treats as everyday foods, children are exercising less and, as a result, obesity is growing to alarming levels," he says.
At the moment one in five people in Ireland is obese. "When I was young a packet of Tayto and a bottle of Club orange was something special and it would happen only on a Sunday. Now, if you want to treat a child, what do you give them that is special?" he asks.
As a child, Domini Kemp, food writer and founder of the Itsa Bagel chain, ate Pop Tarts, processed cheese and raw cookie dough. "I wouldn't go near any of them now," she says.
As a mother, she has strong views on food advertising targeted at children. "I would not buy most of what I consider fake juices or snacks for my daughter but that's not to say I insist on macrobiotic food. Occasionally, junk food is fun for kids and grown-ups alike," she says.
"My objection to children's advertising is that it tries to market these products as though they are of nutritional value and they simply are not."
She maintains many of these products are high in salt, sugar and saturated fat. "If you only give a child that kind of food you are setting them up for bad eating habits later on," she says.
Fruit and vegetable companies should copy the big business giants and gear their ads to children. "Eating healthily and exercising should be cool. Pop stars and footballers don't support those principles," she says. "Because Pepsi and McDonalds pay better."