From October public schools will be introducing stricter guidelines for school lunches, said Paula Vassallo, a consultant on dental public health.  Dr Vassallo was a guest on Times Talk, which tackled the amount of hidden sugar in foods.

Other guests on the weekly programme were paediatrician Mark Buttigieg, who described sugar consumption in Malta as an epidemic, and well-known personality Clare Agius who spoke about the methods she uses to keep her son away from sugar.

A feature prepared by Kristina Chetcuti showed that on average, a Maltese child consumes an average of 35 teaspoons of sugar a day, six times more than the World Health Organisation recommendation. There were also interventions by Health Parliamentary Secretary Chris Fearne and world-renowned nutritionist John Briffa.

Presented by Times of Malta’s head of media Herman Grech and chief reporter Mark Micallef, Times Talk is live on TVM on Tuesday at 6.45pm.

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