PHA-Exch> Food marketing to children

[Claudio Schuftan]

From: Vidar, Margret (ESAD) Margret.Vidar at fao.org

  Study finds support for use of 'Sydney Principles' to restrict marketing
to children FRIDAY 6 JUNE 2008

A new international code on marketing food and beverage to children should
be formed and based on the 'Sydney Principles', a set of seven principles
developed by the International Obesity Taskforce (IOTF), a new study has
said.

The Sydney Principles aim to guide action on changing food and beverage
marketing practices that target children, a goal which health experts
believe is imperative if rising levels of obesity are to be curbed and
numbers of obesity-related diseases, including some forms of cancer, are to
be reduced.

After smoking, obesity is one of the most important preventable causes of
cancer. Being overweight or obese is linked to cancers of the womb, kidney,
colon, gallbladder and oesophagus, and to breast cancer in postmenopausal
women.

[image: *]The momentum is building for an international code on marketing to
children, so we expect that the Sydney Principles will underpin the content
of such a code.[image: *] *-Professor Boyd Swinburn, WHO Collaborating
Centre for Obesity Prevention, Deakin University*

A new study, published in the journal Public Health Nutrition, has analysed
feedback on the seven principles which was gathered during a global
consultation between November 2006 and April 2007.

Study author Professor Boyd Swinburn, of the WHO Collaborating Centre for
Obesity Prevention at Australia's Deakin University, commented: "The food
and advertising industries fully supported the Sydney Principles, except
where it called for statutory regulations.

"Their claim that the existing self-regulatory measures truly provide
protection for children needs to be put under the microscope because there
is a lot of scepticism about such claims."

The seven Sydney Principles state that actions to reduce marketing to
children should support the rights of children; afford substantial
protection to children; be statutory; take a wide definition of commercial
promotions; guarantee commercial-free childhood settings; include
cross-border media; and be subject to evaluation, monitoring and
enforcement.

Of the 229 responses received to the consultation, the vast majority of
professional and scientific associations, consumer bodies, industry bodies,
health professionals and other interested parties agreed that a set of
principles are needed.

Each of the principles was supported by a wide group of stakeholders, except
for some opposition to the third principle (that the actions should be
statutory) from within the food and advertising industries.

There were also some concerns about the challenges to implementing the
principles. More specifically, concerns were raised about the age range to
which restrictions should apply and the types of products that should be
included.

The study authors concluded: "The Sydney Principles?should be used to
benchmark action to reduce marketing to children [and] should guide the
formation of an international code on food and beverage marketing to
children."

Professor Swinburn added: "The Sydney Principles are centred on ethics and
the protection of children which is where this debate on marketing to
children needs to sit.

"The momentum is building for an international code on marketing to
children, so we expect that the Sydney Principles will underpin the content
of such a code."
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