Better-for-who? revisiting company promises on food marketing to children

Background: In January 2006, the National Academies’ Institute of Medicine (IOM) concluded that food marketing influences children’s food preferences, requests, diets, and health. One of the IOM’s recommendations was that food and media companies shift the mix of foods marketed to youth toward healthier foods within two years.  As a result the food industry formed the Children’s Food and Beverage Advertising Initiative (CFBAI), a self‐regulatory program administered by the Council of Better Business Bureaus (CBBB).  Now, nearly four years since the IOM released its recommendations, how healthy are the products that companies market to children? The CBBB has been monitoring the CFBAI primarily using company reports, and adherence to pledges is high.  However, do nutrition standards and pledge adherence translate to fewer ads for foods of poor nutritional quality? To answer those questions, this study from the Center for Science in the Public Interest, analyzed the nutritional quality of foods and beverages that companies have approved for marketing to children, and tracked changes in the nutritional quality of foods and beverages marketed to children over time.

Main findings:

The percentage of approved products that met nutrition standards varied across food product types, from 0% of puddings, fruit‐flavoured snacks, and sweet snacks to 73% of yogurts.

The percentage of foods that met CSPI's nutrition standards varied across companies, from 0% to 100%. The majority of approved products from Burger King, Nestlé, Dannon and ConAgra met the standards, while the majority of products approved for marketing to kids by Pepsi, Kraft, McDonald’s, General Mills, Kellogg, Unilever and Campbell failed to meet the specified nutrition standards.

On Nickelodeon, the most popular children’s television station, ads for foods of poor nutritional quality decreased slightly, from about nine in ten (88%) to eight in ten (79%) food ads. The decrease was not statistically significant.

While the percentage of ads for foods exceeding the recommended limits for total fat, saturated plus trans fat, and sodium decreased, the percentage of ads for foods exceeding the recommended limit for added sugars increased.

The number of ads for foods that exceeded two or more limits for problem nutrients dropped from 29% of food ads in 2005 to 10% of food ads in 2009 (excluding brand ads).

One‐quarter of Nickelodeon’s TV food ads were from companies that do not participate in the Council of Better Business Bureaus' Children's Food and Beverage Advertising Initiative (CFBAI).

Almost no ads from non‐CFBAI companies met CSPI's recommended nutrition standards for food marketing to children, while 28% of ads from CFBAI companies met the standards.

Click here to read the full report

Photo from Creative Commons: Flickr: dresdnhope