On July 3, the World Health Organization (WHO) published a new guideline on food marketing to children. The guideline builds on the agency’s 2010 recommendations and considers newer science and marketing and advertising contexts. The guideline’s objectives are to:
- Make policy recommendations “to protect all children from the harmful impact of food marketing;”
- Enable advocacy to restrict food marketing to children;
- Guide future research to strengthen the evidence base for policy action; and
- Contribute to the creation of healthy food environments.
Marketing to children policies are one of the top nutrient profiling-based approaches used by food system stakeholders today, largely driven by rising child overweight and obesity rates. In the past decade or so, more governments have implemented these policies and/or strengthened them (e.g., made them mandatory, applied them to more types of media, expanded the definition of child, integrated them with front-of-pack labels). Voluntary marketing pledges and policies have evolved in turn.
The new WHO guideline supports these trends and encourages a stronger global standard. Countries will continue to feel pressure to act, and the needle will continue to move. Organizations that create or adapt their policies and approaches proactively will be in a better position to navigate future regulations.
Below are some notable details of the new guideline. Contact Global Food IQ to learn more and ensure your organization is prepared for what’s next.
- [Conditional Recommendation] Good practice policies should be:
- Mandatory
- Applied to children “of all ages” (i.e., under 18)
- Based on a government-led nutrient profile model that restricts foods higher in saturated fat, trans fat, free sugars and salt (HFSS)
- Comprehensive enough to minimize migration and marketing to other age groups, and other spaces within the same medium or to other media, including digital spaces.
- Limited in the use of cartoons or techniques that appeal to children, such as including toys with products, advertising with songs, and celebrity endorsements.
- Evidence shows that food marketing negatively affects children’s food choices, dietary intake, and the development of food consumption norms.
- The rationale for child marketing policies goes beyond health to also embody children’s rights.
- The guideline should be considered alongside other forthcoming WHO guidelines to support healthy food environments, concerning school food and nutrition policies, nutrition labeling policies, and fiscal policies.
The recommendation, if implemented, would progress current child marketing policies around the world. According to the guideline, one third of countries with child marketing policies use mandatory policies, and most existing policies define children up to age 12. WHO acknowledges country context is important to consider when preparing for implementation.
