Follow up: Proposed New Standards for Marketing Healthy Foods to Kids

In response to my previous blog about child obesity, new nutrition standards have been published on how food should be marketed to children by the FTC and other government agencies.

Foods marketed to children would be required to provide a meaningful contribution to a healthful diet. Two options for marketers exist: A requirement that 50% of a food’s weight should come from healthful foods, including fruit, vegetable, whole grain, nuts, seeds, or beans. The second option is marketed food should contain any number of a minimum amount of listed foods that characterize a “healthful diet according to a preset list of foods that have been established. ”Foods exempt from the new standards would include 100% content products of fruits, vegetables, non-fat and low-fat milk and yogurt, whole grains, and water.

If this is adopted, the way in which we market and advertise to children will shift in favour of healthier foods that are better for children and away from unhealthy foods that have contributed to the rise in child obesity.

A final report to Congress is scheduled for July 15, 2010 by the Interagency Working Group on Food Marketed to Children. A group that consists of representatives from the FTC, FDA, the United States Department of Agriculture, and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.