Marketing to children and HFFS food

Transcription

1 Marketing to children and HFFS food Ilaria Passarani Head of Food and Health Department EU Platform on diet, physical activity and health Brussels 24 November 2014

2 BEUC members work on marketing to children Testing products marketed to children to assess their nutritional value Check food packagings to see if they comply with government and/or industry rules Monitor and report back on industry commitments to reduce marketing to children

3 Self-regulation is falling short of expectations HFFS food is still marketed to children Healthy food items (fruits, vegetables, healthy proteins, whole grains etc.) represent a very low share of food marketed to kids New marketing techniques (advergames, social media) are increasingly used Self-regulation and voluntary codes of conduct are not bringing the expected results

4 How a children plate would look like if made by advertisers?

5 Example: breakfast cereals and cereal bars Slovenia: 50% of breakfast cereals marketed to kids tested by our Slovenian member ZPS contained more than 30g of sugar/100g of product Honey Pops made of 45% of sugar Danish Consumer Council, Morgenmad til born fyldt med sukker, 2013 Denmark: One breakfast cereal tested by the Danish Consumer Council contained 45g of sugar, i.e. almost half of the product is made of sugar UK: All 7 cereals bars marketed to children tested by Which? were high in sugar (more than 25g/100g), with two containing 40% of added sugars

6 ZPS, Zita za zajtrk vecina bi lahko pristala na polici med sladkarijami, 2013 * 3 products have been reformulated and they no longer fall in the category gr but in the one 15-30gr

7 Differences between two similar products or products from the same category can be staggering UK: One bar can contain 3 times more sugar and 4 times more fat than another one France: Salt levels can double between two similar maize petals breakfast cereals Monster Puffs bar contains 3 times more sugar and 4 times more fat than Weetabix Oaty bar, Healthy snacks? Which?, 2012

8 Claims on unhealthy food marketed to children Austria: A cereal bar filled with sugar and fat referring to multi-vitamins and calcium on frontof-pack AK, 2013 Spain: Waffles and sugary drinkable yogurts referring to the presence of vitamins and minerals on front of pack OCU, 2012 We need nutrient profiles to make sure products bearing claims have a minimum healthy profile, especially those marketed to children

9 Family programmes and new media Family programmes New media such as online and viral marketing catch children s full attention. They are less costly to develop and they can escape parents control o Advergames involving brand characters and sometimes the products themselves. Most of the time they are not hosted by food companies websites but on other internet platforms o Social media (eg. Facebook, Twitter) and Youtube

10 Cartoon characters on packaging Italy: Cartoon characters were spotted on the front of the pack of products marketed to children (yoghurts, biscuits, etc.) Spain: Brand characters and famous cartoon characters were spotted on front of pack Altroconsumo, Bambini, stop all obesita, 2009 OCU, Enganchados al marketing, 2012

11 Product placement and healthy food environments Switzerland: All supermarkets visited by the Swiss Consumer Organization (FRC) sell unhealthy products such as candies, biscuits at check outs and in 89% of cases it is physically accessible to kids

12 BEUC recommendations Government led actions based on strict criteria and applied across the board Broaden the scope of the EU pledge and other voluntary codes to cover new media and family programmes broadcasted between 6pm and 10:30 pm Reshape the age definition of a child in the EU pledge and other voluntary codes, from 12 to 16 Establish independent criteria for the types of foods submitted to marketing restrictions Promote healthy food environments (e.g. schools) Junk food free check outs Better labelling with realistic portions and reference intakes adapted to kids

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