The World Health Organisation (WHO) has issued new guidelines on Monday, urging stronger policies to safeguard children from the detrimental impact of food marketing. It expressed concerns that children are still being exposed to marketing that predominantly promotes foods high in saturated fatty acids, trans-fatty acids, free sugars, and/or sodium, using various strategies that appeal to children.
The WHO is calling on member countries to implement comprehensive mandatory policies to shield children of all ages from the marketing of food and non-alcoholic beverages. It emphasized that such marketing tactics have a harmful influence on children's food choices, dietary intake, their requests for marketed foods to adults, and the development of their food consumption norms.
The move comes after observations that previous calls for responsible marketing practices have not produced significant results. The WHO recommends that governments establish robust and comprehensive regulations. Despite endorsing recommendations on the marketing of food and non-alcoholic beverages to children in 2010, children are still exposed to powerful marketing of high in fat, sugar, and salt (HFSS) foods and non-alcoholic beverages, consumption of which is associated with adverse health effects, WHO said. The updated recommendation is based on evidence, including studies on how exposure to food marketing and its influence affect children's health, eating behaviors, and attitudes towards food.
The WHO highlights that policies to restrict food marketing have the most impact when they are mandatory, protect children of all ages, employ a Government-led nutrient profile model to classify foods that should be restricted from marketing, and are comprehensive enough to minimise the risk of marketing shifting to other age groups, spaces within the same medium, or other media platforms, including digital spaces.
Restricting the persuasive power of food marketing is also significant, which involves limiting the use of techniques that appeal to children, such as cartoons, toys with products, advertising with songs, and celebrity endorsements.