What is with all this junk, Kids?

Posted by admin at 3:15 PM

Is the federal government preparing to impose strict new standards on the food industry and how it markets junk food to kids?

On Wednesday, BNET pointed to an interagency document (embedded below), from the FTC, FDA, CDC, and USDA proposing new nutritional standards for food marketed to children ages 2-17. Sugary fruit juices and fatty foods would be off limits, and could not be aimed at children. According to the new guidelines, foods marketed to kids must actually include food.

While the USDA did help to write the guidelines, they’re the only agency who hasn’t signed off on the proposal, reports BNET:

So what’s the status of these standards? Nobody knows. They were presented at a meeting in December 2009 and were supposed to be finalized by February or March. Both the FTC and the FDA have reportedly signed off on them, but the USDA has not, leading some watchdog groups to speculate that the food industry has unleashed a lobbying effort aimed at its friends in the Agriculture Department. No one from the food industry was present at the meeting in December.

For years, the food industry has tried to avoid reforms that would have imposed stricter requirements on the products they aim at children.

A section titled “Meaningful Contribution to a Healthful Diet” explains some of the new standards that the agencies came up with:

Foods marketed to children must provide a meaningful contribution to a healthful diet.
Option A:
Food must contain at least 50% by weight of one or more of the following: fruit; vegetable; whole grain; fat-free or low-fat milk or yogurt; fish; extra lean meat or poultry; eggs; nuts and
seeds; or beansOption B:
Food must contain one or more of the following per RACC:
0.5 cups fruit or fruit juice
0.6 cups vegetables or vegetable juice
0.75 oz. equivalent of 100% whole grain
0.75 cups milk or yogurt; 1 oz. natural cheese; 1.5 oz.
processed cheese
1.4 oz. meat equivalent of fish or extra lean meat or
poultry
0.3 cups cooked dry beans
0.7 oz. nuts or seeds
1 egg or egg equivalent

Last month, the Federal Trade Commission publicly admonished cereal maker Kellogg’s for the second in time in as many years for making unsupported health claims regarding children.

Last year the company reached a settlement with the FTC, which criticized its unfounded claims that Frosted Mini Wheats cereal was “clinically shown to improve kids’ attentiveness by nearly 20%.” Yet shortly after coming to an agreement on that previous marketing campaign, Kellogg launched another effort for Rice Krispies, claiming that the cereal could boost children’s immunity, according to a statement released yesterday by the FTC.

Story continues below

Under the previous settlement, Kellogg was banned from making any claims about their products’ benefits to cognitive health or function unless such claims could be backed up by scientific evidence. In light of the subsequent claims — that Rice Krispies can boost children’s immunity — the original order has been expanded, and now more broadly bars the company from “making claims about any health benefit of any food unless the claims are backed by scientific evidence and not misleading.”

Say goodbye to Kool Aid ads with jovial juice mascots and sugary cereals hawked by SpongeBob Squarepants. Well, maybe. Possibly. If the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) can get its act together.

A recent news report revealed that the USDA, along with the Federal Trade Commission (FTC), Food and Drug Administration (FDA), and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), may start limiting how the food industry markets junk food to kids. As The Huffington Post reports, an interagency document reveals a plan that would seriously restrict how food can be marketed to children between the ages of two and 17. According to BNET, the FTC and FDA have already signed onto the proposal, but the USDA hasn’t endorsed the plan yet. The proposal was originally presented at a meeting in December of 2009.

If the USDA does decide to get on board, the proposal could revolutionize food advertising and how it impacts children. One especially promising nugget from the plan says that “Foods marketed to children must provide a meaningful contribution to a healthful diet. Food must contain at least 50% by weight of one or more of the following: fruit; vegetable; whole grain; fat-free or low-fat milk or yogurt; fish; extra lean meat or poultry; eggs; nuts and seeds; or beans.” The plan would, in essence, prohibit fun cartoon characters from pimping out products loaded with fats, sugars, and sodium.

I can hear those food industry execs groaning now. Marketing junk food to children is a multi-billion-dollar industry. As Change.org blogger David Orr reported, a recent Yale study found that an overwhelming majority of children will select food items featuring cartoon characters over identical snacks with unadorned packaging. Most kids will even say that the cartooned goods taste better. Another study found that junk food advertising could contribute to as much as 40 percent of childhood obesity cases in the U.S. That’s a lot of people considering that as many as one-third of American kids and teens are obese.

It’s going to take a partnership to really make a dent in the childhood obesity epidemic, and we’ll need school systems, the federal government, the food industry, and parents to all get on board. But it’s time that federal agencies stop pandering to food industry lobbyists. Sign our petition telling the USDA to sign onto the proposal that would restrict how the food industry markets junk food to children.

Photo credit: Kevin Krejci via Flickr

I

Original Post: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/07/08/junk-food-crackdown-feds_n_639100.html?ref=twitter