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Products marketed to children found to not meet nutrition guidelines

Nearly half of the food and beverage products directly marketed to children do not meet the nutrition recommendation guidelines of the federal Interagency Working Group, making them ineligible to be advertised, according to recently published data.

“Companies manufacture food and beverage products that meet [Interagency Working Group’s] recommendations; however, these are not the products most heavily marketed to children. Evidence shows that 96% of food and beverage products advertisements seen by children on children’s television programs were high in nutrients to limit,” Rebecca M. Schermbeck, MPG, MS, RD, of the Institute for Health Research and Policy, University of Illinois at Chicago, and Lisa M. Powell, PhD, of the Division of Health Policy and Administration, University of Illinois at Chicago, wrote. 

To calculate the number of products meeting marketing guidelines for children, researchers compared data from the April 2014 Children’s Food and Beverage Advertising Initiative (CFBAI) approved advertising list with the federal Interagency Working Group’s (IWG) nutrients to limit recommendations.

Results demonstrated that 53% of approved CFBAI products (total n = 214 of 407 total) did not meet IWG recommendations for one or more nutrients to limit. Of all IWG’s nutrients to limit, sugar was most commonly not in line with recommendations, with 32% (n = 131) not meeting guidelines. Additionally, 23% of products exceeded limits for saturated fats and 15% exceeded sodium limits, however, only 1% of products exceeded limits for trans fat.  

The researchers recommend that going forward, the public push for more advertising of healthy products to children, and that public health researchers continue to monitor marketing directed at children.

“Children see 10 to 13 food-related advertisements per day on television, half f which air during programs specifically for children. If companies chose to advertise products from the CFBAI’s list of approved food products that meet the IWG recommendations more often than products that do not, children’s exposure to food and beverage advertising could improve substantially,” Schermbeck and Powell wrote. – by Casey Hower

Disclosure: The researchers report no relevant financial disclosures.