Agency agrees plan to overhaul food promotion to children
Thursday 11 March 2004
Far-reaching proposals to redress the imbalance of children's diets were agreed by the Agency's Board at its open meeting in London today.
At the meeting, Sir John Krebs, the Agency's Chair, said: 'Children are bombarded with messages that promote food high in fat, salt and sugar. The evidence shows that these messages do influence children. Eating too much of these foods is storing up health problems for their future. The Food Standards Agency wants healthier choices to be promoted to children.
‘All parents are concerned about the health of their children; doing nothing to help them is not an option.’
'Everyone has a responsibility to act and our action plan is a challenge to all with a part to play: not just parents and children, but Government, schools, the food and advertising industries and the celebrities and sporting heroes children look up to.
'Just because this is a complex issue doesn't mean we can't do anything about it.
'All parents are concerned about the health of their children; doing nothing to help them is not an option.'
The action plan commits the Agency to a range of initiatives, including:
- developing advice and guidelines for the food industry on reducing amounts of fat, salt and sugar in products specifically aimed at children, and agreeing guidelines on the labelling of these products to enable consumers to identify more easily and accurately what are healthier options
- monitoring food industry uptake of the Agency's advice and guidelines, and publishing the results for consumers to see what progress is being made
- working with schools to push healthier foods higher up the menu. Targeting vending machines in schools to increase the range of healthier options
- calling on celebrities to help redress the imbalance by promoting healthier food choices. This includes sports stars and sponsored events
- working with broadcasters to encourage them to follow BBC Worldwide's initiative to increase the association between high profile characters and cartoons on TV and healthier foods
- advising the broadcast regulator Ofcom, and the advertising industry, that action to address the imbalance in TV advertising of food to children is justified
Following on from today's discussions by the Board, the Agency's action plan will be finalised and published for consultation.
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