WASHINGTON (AP) — The nation's largest food companies say they will cut back on marketing unhealthier foods to children, proposing their own set of advertising standards after rejecting similar guidelines proposed by the federal government.
A coalition of food companies — including General
Mills, ConAgra and Kellogg — plan to announce the guidelines Thursday. The
companies said the effort will vastly change what is advertised, forcing them
to curb advertising on one out of three products currently marketed to
children.
The new standards, which will allow companies to
advertise food and beverage products to children if they meet certain
nutritional criteria, could force some brands to change recipes to include less
sodium, fat, sugars and calories. While many companies have trumpeted their own
efforts to market healthier foods to kids, the agreement would apply the same
standards to all of the participating companies.
"Now foods from different companies, such as
cereals or canned pastas, will meet the same nutrition criteria, rather than
similar but slightly different company-specific criteria," said Elaine
Kolish of the Children's Food and Beverage Advertising Initiative, a group
formed by the industry to address marketing issues.
The group's proposal was pushed along by a
government effort to do the same thing. The Federal Trade Commission and
several other government agencies were directed by Congress to come up with voluntary
guidelines for marketing junk food to children, and those were issued earlier
this year. The industry balked at that proposal, saying the voluntary standards
were too broad and would limit marketing of almost all of the nation's favorite
foods, including yogurts, cereals and even some whole wheat breads.
Not surprisingly, the proposal issued by the
government is stricter than the standards the companies are pushing for
themselves. While the government proposal put broad limits on fats, sugars and
sodium that would apply to marketing of all foods, the industry has suggested
different guidelines for different foods, saying that is a more practical
approach.
The industry guidelines for children's cereals, for
example, would allow them to be advertised if they have around 10 grams of
sugar a serving, while the formula used by the government would discourage
advertising for cereals that have 8 grams of sugars in an equivalent serving.
That would mean General Mills would still be able to advertise Honey Nut
Cheerios cereal under the industry guidelines but would be discouraged under
the voluntary government guidelines.
Another difference between the proposals is where
companies are allowed to advertise. While the government guidelines are broad,
discouraging advertising of unhealthy foods on packaging and in stores, along
with in the media, the industry guidelines would apply to media — television,
radio, print, video games and the Internet — but not packaging. That means the
little bee on the front of the Honey Nut Cheerios box would stay under the
industry proposal and go under the government draft.
Even if the industry standards are not as strict as
the government guidelines, they still represent progress on the part of the
companies. Many companies now advertise any children's cereals that have less
than 12 grams of sugar, down from 15 or 16 grams of sugars a decade ago.
Margo Wootan, director of nutrition policy at the
advocacy group Center for Science in the Public Interest, praised the industry
for pushing for uniform standards for all of the companies, though she said
they do not go far enough. She said she hopes the industry standards are a
jumping-off point for negotiations with health advocates and the government.
"We are definitely open to negotiating
something to make (the voluntary government standards) more workable," she
said.
Iowa Sen. Tom Harkin, the Democrat who wrote the
language directing the government to develop the standards, said he believes
the industry proposal falls short.
"With childhood obesity rates rising, now is
the time for all parties to rally around those guidelines and begin
implementing them, rather than coming up with competing proposals," he
said.
That may be a while off. House Republicans have
included a provision in next year's Federal Trade Commission budget that would
delay the government standards by asking the government to study the potential
cost and impact of the guidelines before implementing them.
If they are not delayed by Congress, a final draft
of the standards could come by the end of the year.
Copyright
2011 The Associated Press.
