Children's Food Campaign welcomes exposé of high sugar cereals

Responding to a new report from consumer champion Which? (as featured on BBC TV's One Show last night) about the high sugar content of the majority of breakfast cereals - especially those aimed at children, Children’s Food Campaign co-ordinator Malcolm Clark said:

“The findings support our assertion that food manufacturers are failing to play their part in combating the childhood obesity epidemic.” 

“Most of the cereal companies and supermarkets featured in Which?'s analysis are partners in the Government’s public health Responsibility Deal.  Yet their actions, in continuing to sell high sugar products and promote them to children, are hugely counter-productive to public health efforts.” 

“This is just one aspect of the double-standards shown by these food manufacturers. Many of them refuse to adopt the Traffic Light Labelling system recommended by the Food Standards Agency to make it easier for parents and children to make healthy eating choices. The majority of supermarkets run promotional offers on unhealthy foods, encouraging consumers to buy more of them.  And the use of websites and online marketing to promote unhealthy food products which directly target or appeal to children is prevalent in the food industry.”

He added:

“We are calling for consistency, not double-standards.  This applies to the companies and supermarkets concerned. But it also applies to advertising and marketing regulations on unhealthy foods, which currently vary widely across different media and are not strictly enforced. And it applies to the Government, which must not weaken future Responsibility Deal pledges in response to pressure from the food industry.”

ENDS

For further information and interviews, please contact Malcolm Clark on 0203 5596 777 or 07733322148 or malcolm@sustainweb.org

Notes to editors

1) The Which? media release is available at:
http://www.which.co.uk/about-which/press/press-releases/campaign-press-releases/food-and-health/2012/02/which-finds-breakfast-cereals-are-still-too-high-in-sugar-but-are-lower-in-salt/ 
and for it's corresponding web page see:
http://www.which.co.uk/news/2012/02/which-finds-breakfast-cereals-high-in-sugar-278750/

2) The Children's Food Campaign wants to improve children's health and well-being through better food - and food teaching - in schools, and protecting children from junk food marketing. We are supported by over 150 national organisations. The Children's Food Campaign is coordinated by Sustain: the alliance for better food and farming and funded by the British Heart Foundation. For more information, see www.childrensfood.org.uk

3) On 9 February 2012 the Children’s Food Campaign submitted a ‘super-complaint’ of 54 separate complaints to the Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) concerning the online marketing of junk foods to children. Each of the offending company websites promote products which are classified as “high in sugars or fat or salt” and are clearly targeted at children. This marketing encourages poor nutritional habits by presenting junk foods in a positive light which influences children’s food preferences and choices. The websites for Kellogg’s Rice Krispies and for Sugar Puffs were amongst the 54.
The complaints concern marketing communications which are subject to section 15 on ‘Food, food supplements and associated health or nutrition claims’ of the Advertising Standards Authority Committee of Advertising Practice (CAP) Code. The Children’s Food Campaign maintains that it breaches the following clause: “Marketing communications must not condone or encourage poor nutritional habits or an unhealthy lifestyle in children.”

4) All the products and websites which formed part of the super-complaint were featured in the British Heart Foundation and Children’s Food Campaign report The 21st C. Gingerbread house: How companies are marketing junk food to children online. The report was conducted between April and July 2011. It identified 100 websites including product sites, brand sites and company web pages which were examined in detail.  The report can be downloaded from https://www.sustainweb.org/publications/?id=200