Restaurant industry, we have had enough! Are you deliberately trying to gross us out? Do you get a kick out of making grotesque concoctions in your test kitchens and then send them out to mass market as a punch line?

This Hot Dog Stuffed Crust pizza from Pizza Hut is about the nastiest thing we’ve seen come from a restaurant in quite a while. While we’re glad it’s not available in the U.S. (at least for now, just give it time), we feel for the residents of the United Kingdom being subjected to this culinary nonsense.

Jillian Michaels coined the term best when she started describing this over-processed junk “Frankenfoods,” meaning they resemble food but calling it that would be a disservice to all of the things that are actually food.

Dressed like any other pizza with cheese, pepperoni, peppers, and onions, the Hot Dog Stuffed Crust pizza has the slimy little sausage tucked inside the crust and comes with a free mustard drizzle. The chest pains for dessert and gastric bloat are also free.
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In England, The National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence has come up with a groundbreaking concept to improve the health of the country. They have proposed paying those with unhealthy habits, including those who are obese and smoke, to quit their addictions.

On 20-22 May 2010, NICE’s Citizens Council met to discuss the following question: In what circumstances are incentives to promote individual behaviour change an acceptable way of promoting the health of the public?

From the September 27, 2010 press release :

While this approach is not commonly used in the UK to improve areas of public health, the Council heard of examples where local incentive schemes had been piloted. These included an initiative to encourage pregnant women to stop smoking by offering supermarket vouchers, people receiving cash for losing agreed amounts of weight, and children being rewarded with toys in exchange for eating more fruit and vegetables.
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According to the UK’s Telegraph, researchers found that British children spend twice as much on junk food than their American counterparts. The average British child spends the equivalent of $570 per year on candy alone (that’s enough for 850 Mars bars), whereas an American child spends $230. Kids in the UK were also found to eat more pre-prepared meals, ice cream and sugary breakfast cereals. The study did not bode well for the success of the British Government’s anti-obesity campaign, which recently suffered from a major funding cut.

Over a third of British children are obese, and that number is projected to increase at a rate of 2.1 percent a year until 2014, while childhood obesity in the US is expected to increase at a rate of 1.3 percent. Food manufacturers, however, are disputing the claims.

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The BBC reported today that Thames Water removed enough fat to fill nine of London’s iconic double-decker buses. The massive and messy clean-out project occurred in pipes under Leicester Square, and was the largest of its kind. The estimated 1000 tons of petrified fat are the unfortunate result of people pouring cooking fat down the drain. The fat-blockage has lead to flooding in 7,000 London homes yearly.

“We’re used to getting our hands dirty, but nothing on this scale,” said Danny Brackley, one of the water company’s sewer flushers. “We couldn’t even access the sewer as it was blocked by a four-foot wall of solid fat.” The members of the clean up crew were equipped with shovels and full breathing apparatus.
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The U.K. government is cutting its $120 million Change4Life public service campaign in an effort to reduce spending. They’re asking marketers to take on the duty of educating the public about the health-risks of obesity in exchange for limiting new regulations of food marketing. Proposed regulations include a ban on TV advertising of foods high in salt, fat and sugar before 9:00 p.m.

Ad Age reports that the move is part of a larger attempt to cutback on government marketing expenses; the U.K.’s government is the biggest-spending advertiser in the U.K., followed by Procter & Gamble. Although the budget cut my adversely affect advertising agencies, many marketers welcome the promise to limit regulation of food and drink marketing. Some have also been positive about the opportunity to have a voice in the new approach to public heath.

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