EUPHA-the European Public Health Association, which has brought together institutions, associations and public health experts since 1992-publishes a call to protect children and adolescents from the predatory marketing of foods with poor nutritional profiles, or ‘junk-food‘.
1) World Obesity Day 2023
‘Changing Perspectives: Let’s Talk About Obesity’ is the theme assigned to the eighth
World Obesity Day
March 4, 2023. Changing perspectives means correcting misconceptions, prejudices and stigmatizations of individuals to bring forth effective shared strategies.
Projections to 2035 indicate a doubling of childhood obesity (compared to 2020), 1.9 billion individuals (1 in 4) with obesity, and a total health care cost of $4.32 trillion. Changing the rules today is necessary to address the public health crisis.
2) Childhood obesity and predatory marketing of junk food.
WHO Europe
(2022) showed the epidemic prevalence of obesity in the Old Continent, termed ‘an obesogenic environment’ due to the aggressive marketing of junk-food and its shelf dominance over foods with balanced nutritional profiles. (2)
Scientific studies reported by WHO Europe have shown how junk food marketing via influencers and vloggers, social media , and advergames have immediate impacts on the behaviors of children and adolescents.
Children must be protected, and the European Commission, which already identified this ‘serious public health problem’ in its Green Paper on Obesity Prevention (2005), has yet to take any measures. (3)
3) EUPHA. Protect children and adolescents with cogent rules
There is an urgent need to introduce a strict European discipline on marketing to kids. Big Food ‘s self-regulation has already failed; we need cogent rules. (3) And to this end, it is essential to clarify two essential concepts:
- guardianship should be extended to every person under the age of 18. EUPHA proposes to adapt an extended ‘child’ for this purpose, although perhaps the concept of ‘minor’ might better express this broad age range,
- Unhealthy foods should be identified in accordance with WHO Europe’s recommended nutrient profiles. In line therefore with the NutriScore scheme of FOPNL(Front-of-Pack Nutrition Labelling), in fact also approved by EUPHA. (4)
3.1) What rules in EU
16 public health organizations, together with EUPHA, reiterate to the EU the need for legislative reforms based on scenario data and scientific evidence. Therefore, one must:
- Stop marketing unhealthy foods between the hours of 6 a.m. and 11 p.m. in the media,
- Ban the marketing of unhealthy foods on digital media,
- stop sponsorship of cross-border events by food brands unless they can prove that the sponsors are not associated with unhealthy foods,
- Prohibit the use of marketing techniques that use children and adolescents to promote unhealthy foods, particularly on food packaging. (5)
4) Childhood obesity and overweight, macro-region Europe. The data in a nutshell
The data shared by WHO Europe confirm the urgency of taking the measures called for by EUPHA. The latest (fifth) cycle of the European Childhood Obesity Surveillance Initiative (COSI) allowed for the collection of data on 411,000 children in 33 countries in the macro-region of Europe between 2018 and 2020. Some insights:
- One in three children (29% in ages 7-9 years) live with overweight or obesity,
- overweight and obesity are more prevalent among boys (31 percent), compared to girls (28 percent).
- 75% of children aged 6-9 years eat breakfast every day (only 3% never eat breakfast), but
- Less than half of children (43%) in ages 6-9 consume fresh fruit every day. And 11 percent of children years never (or less than once a week) eat vegetables.
5) Interim Conclusions
‘We need better policies that create a new environment in which children and adults can choose better diets and lead active, healthy lives in every country in the WHO European Region.
Also to reduce the burden of noncommunicable diseases -including cardiovascular disease, diabetes and cancer-that cause 90 percent of all deaths in the region’ (Kremlin Wickramasinghe, WHO Europe, Prevention and Control of Non-Communicable Diseases, NCDs).
Dario Dongo
Notes
(1) Sabrina Bergamini, Dario Dongo. Obesity, childhood obesity, and marketing. WHO Europe 2022 Report. GIFT (Great Italian Food Trade). 16.6..22
(2) Alessandra Mei. Public health, noncommunicable diseases, and prevention. EUPHA compared with WHO. GIFT (Great Italian Food Trade). 9.11.22
(3) Dario Dongo, Giulia Caddeo. Obesity, all to go. Civil society abandons Brussels platform. GIFT (Great Italian Food Trade). 6.7.19
(4) Marta Strinati. EU public health, EUPHA, points to NutriScore as the best option of FoPNL. GIFT (Great Italian Food Trade). 20.3.23
(5) World Obesity Day 2022
Call to protect children from the marketing of nutritionally poor food: Time for an effective regulatory framework. EUPHA. https://eupha.org/repository/Joint%20statement_World%20Obesity%20Day_marketing_final.pdf
(6) WHO(World Health Organization) Europe. Childhood obesity: five facts about the WHO European Region. 30.3.23
Dario Dongo, lawyer and journalist, PhD in international food law, founder of WIISE (FARE - GIFT - Food Times) and Égalité.
