Don’t Let Them Eat Cake!

Julie Sabba, an Associate in Employment, refrains from eating a chocolate éclair, whilst considering how employers should react to recent advice from the Head of the Food Standards Agency.

Employers are being warned not to encourage employees to overly indulge in cake consumption in the office after a Food Standards Agency boss warned against it – likening the health risks of doing so to passive smoking.

The workplace was singled out as a place where employees may make ‘extraordinary efforts’ towards self-control, denying themselves sweet treats, only for it to be undone by colleagues introducing goodies into the staff kitchen.  The harmful effect to colleagues caused by consuming too much sugar was likened to the negative effects caused by smoking in public.

Whilst employers may not have to take draconian measures just yet by locking up the fridge completely, it could be beneficial to encourage staff to consider healthy alternatives when treating colleagues, such as fruit platters or savoury bites, leading to an improvement in standards of health more widely and a reduction in sickness absence.