WHO calls for comprehensive policy approach to protect children from harmful food marketing

01 Jun 2022 --- The World Health Organization (WHO) is flagging the harmful impact of food marketing on children. With childhood overweight and obesity increasingly turning into global public health concerns, the WHO addresses the pressing issue by outlining food market threats and governments’ responsibilities.

In its policy brief, the WHO provides policy-makers and industry professionals with information and policy options to increase protection of children from the harmful impact of food marketing by reducing the power of – and exposure to children of – such marketing practices. 

In 2020, 38.9 million children under the age of five years were estimated to be overweight, while in 2016 more than 340 million children and adolescents between 5 and 19 years were affected by overweight or obesity. 

A major driver of the increases in obesity, that have been seen in almost all countries, is current food environments, which feature the increasing availability, accessibility, affordability and marketing of foods that are high in saturated fats, trans-fats, sugars and or salt and are usually highly processed.

In 2020, 38.9 million children under the age of 5 years were estimated to be overweight.Food marketing threats 
Food environments are changing rapidly, especially in low- and middle-income countries, with the wide availability and heavy marketing of many products – in particular, those with a high content of fat, sugar, salt or sodium.

Healthy diets are being undermined by marketing practices, with a significant amount of marketing targeting foods that contribute to an unhealthy diet. According to the WHO, evidence is unequivocal that food marketing to which children are exposed alters their food preferences, choice, purchases and intake.

Food marketing also threatens children’s rights, affecting their physical health as well as their emotional, mental and spiritual well-being.

Therefore, as noted by the commission set up by the WHO, the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) and the Lancet (the WHO–UNICEF– Lancet Commission), “commercial governance” is essential to protect children from harmful marketing that encourages unhealthy diets.

Food environments are changing rapidly with the wide availability and heavy marketing of many products.Achieving change 
The framework for implementing the set of recommendations proposes the following three comprehensive policy approaches that are considered to have the highest potential to achieve the desired policy impact: 

Eliminating all forms of food marketing that is “high in saturated fats, trans-fatty acids, free sugars, or salt” to which a broad range of children are exposed.

Eliminating all forms of food marketing to which a broad range of children are exposed. 

Eliminating all forms of marketing to which a broad range of children are exposed.

To date, no country has implemented a comprehensive policy, despite evolving evidence on the harmful impact that food marketing can have on children of all ages, including those aged over 12 years.

Governments are called upon to implement comprehensive policy approaches to restrict marketing of foods that contribute to an unhealthy diet.Moving toward comprehensive policies
As of May 2022, a total of 60 countries have adopted policies that restrict marketing of food and nonalcoholic beverages to children, especially in the Americas and Europe.

Twenty of these countries have mandatory marketing restriction policies and another 18 mandatory policies in schools. Several countries have multiple approaches, mandatory and voluntary and there is great variation in scope, such as channels or settings covered. 

Some policies cover all F&B products, others restrict marketing of products based on their nutrient content and some focus on a specific product such as energy drinks or sugar-sweetened beverages. Furthermore, many countries have policies that do not cover children up to 18 years of age.

The governments’ responsibility? 
The WHO suggests that both the exposure of children to marketing and the power of marketing should be reduced. 

To achieve such objectives, the WHO claims that governments are in the best position to define the scope of the policy and its components. Parliamentarians also play a role in advancing policies, including those to protect children from the harmful impact of food marketing through their mandates of representation, legislation, budget and oversight. 

To mitigate the harmful impact of food marketing on children, governments are called upon to implement comprehensive policy approaches. These approaches are set to restrict marketing of foods that contribute to an unhealthy diet, to reduce children’s exposure to such marketing and to reduce the power of such marketing, offering the best possible protection to all children. 

Comprehensive policy approaches have the potential to be sufficiently broad to restrict all forms of food marketing to which children are exposed, including cross border marketing. 

In view of the increasing concern of digital marketing and in line with the general comment on children’s rights in relation to the digital environment, policies to protect children from the harmful impact of food marketing should also include digital marketing restrictions.

By Natalie Schwertheim