TOI: Marketing of unhealthy food to children must be curbed: April 04, 2008

CONSUMER WATCH

Marketing of unhealthy food to children must be curbed …Rucha Biju Chitrodia | TNN

The Consumers International (CI) battle against marketing of unhealthy food to children has gathered support from domestic groups as well. The London-based CI is an independent consumer network with over 220 member organisations in 115 countries.

  Ahmedabads Consumer Education and Research Centre (CERC) and Chennais Consumers Association of India have joined CIs international research on the subject. Other than these, participating organisations are from the Philippines, Fiji, Malaysia and Korea.
   The research is meant to beef up CI and the International Obesity Task Forces international code on marketing of food and non-alcoholic beverages to children.
   The two bodies are jointly pushing for the codes acceptance in various countries. Inputs of this research will be put forth in the May 2008 world health assembly, where the new code will be presented, says Pritee Shah of CERC.

Country inputs for the research study must thus be ready in a month. The research aims to identify global and local food companies policies on obesity, marketing technique, nutrition information and labelling.

We are comparing the information on the labels with UK food standards, based on criteria such as sugar, salt and fats, says Shah. Technique and format of the study are uniform for all participants.

The research will look at Kellogs, McDonalds, Pepsi, Coca-Cola, Pizza Hut, Britannia, Nestle, Hindustan Lever, Samrat Namkeen, ITC Foods and Rasna, among others.

We are very keen to know the companies reaction to the study and will be writing to the ministries of information and broadcasting, health and family welfare, and consumer affairs, food and public distribution for their views too, says Shah.

The current research study follows the recent lunch box challenges carried out by CERC, Consumers Association of India and Mumbais Consumer Guidance Society of India to understand childrens food consumption patterns and preferences.

The surveys threw up some interesting results. For one, a majority of children still carry homemade food in their lunch boxes. CERC, though, observed that children prefer energy-dense but nutrient-poor snacks such as wafers and burgers. Chocolates also find favour with them.

Also, products advertised on special children channels are more popular than others. Nirmala Desikan of Consumers Association of India says kids opt for soft drinks and chips in the school canteen because they like the taste and they are popularised. They dont want to be left out when other kids are going for them.

How the world junks it: Global code against hooking kids on to the grub
1.A ban on radio or TV advertisements promoting unhealthy food between 6 am and 9 pm

2.No marketing of unhealthy food using new media (such as websites, social networking sites and text messaging)

3.No promotion of unhealthy food in schools

4.No inclusion of free gifts, toys or collectible items that appeal to children to promote unhealthy food

5.No use of celebrities, cartoon characters, competitions or free gifts to market unhealthy food