Department of Health

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Food advertising and promotion to children

  • Last modified date:
    8 February 2007
The Choosing Health consultation sent a clear message that people feel it is wrong for children to be bombarded with sophisticated marketing that might confuse them and reduce their ability to make healthy choices about the food choices on offer. A key theme that emerged from the consultation was the need to place some form of restriction on food and drink advertising to children to protect those who cannot be expected to make informed choices for themselves.

The Choosing Health? White Paper included a commitment to develop a comprehensive strategy to further restrict the advertising and promotion of foods high in fat, salt and sugar to children. 

We are developing a five strand approach that will include:

  • Broadcast media
  • Non-broadcast media
  • Sponsorship and brandsharing
  • Point of sale advertising including vending in schools
  • Labels, wrappers and packaging.

The Department is working closely with the Food Standards Agency (FSA), Department for Culture, Media and Sport, Department for Education and Skills, Department for Trade and Industry, Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs and the Office of Communications (Ofcom) in delivering on this commitment.  We also recognise the importance of engaging fully with industry, advertisers, consumer groups, experts and other key stakeholders in the food and drink advertising and promotion field.

We have established a Food and Drink Advertising and Promotion Forum for non-broadcast media, which includes representation of a wide range of stakeholders.  We will be adding Forum papers and meeting notes to this site so that all interested stakeholders can keep informed of key developments.

Ofcom

Ofcom has also been asked to consider how industry can have a positive impact on children's food choices, for example:

  • the promotion of healthier foods
  • contributing to the development of new health initiatives
  • the use of positive health campaigns. 

FSA

FSA is developing criteria that can be used to differentiate foods high in fat, salt and sugar and healthier foods. These are due to be published in autumn 2005 and will form the basis of the Ofcom consultation and the work of the Forum.

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