Consumer advocacy NGO Foodwatch has called on supermarkets to double down on protecting children from marketing that sells them products that are too fatty, too sweet or too salty, by banning “immediate advertising and playful marketing” to children.
He sent a letter to various retail chains evoking the misdeeds of these products. Some supermarkets have responded that they have already taken restrictive measures, others are committed to them.
Between attractive packaging and dedicated advertising, food distribution has a “key role” to play in the face of the increase in overweight and obesity among children, says the NGO, which published a barometer on Wednesday regarding the marketing of these “unhealthy” products “. products” aimed at children.
“Supermarkets play a big role in what’s on our plates,” says Foodwatch.
“Serious and up to the task” commitments from distributors
One in six children in France is overweight or obese and most of them will remain so in adulthood, recalls the NGO.
Distributors have made “serious and up to the challenge” commitments, vowing to ban ads intended to appeal to children under 16, Foodwatch notes.
This is the case of Biocoop, which ensures that it does not carry out “any advertising aimed at exploiting children” as provided for in its “communication agreement” applicable to all the brand’s stores.
Lidl announced in January that it would stop advertising “unhealthy” foods aimed at children and ban playful packaging for its own brands. Intermarché is committed to ensuring that all products with “children’s identity” have their recipes “improved”, according to the recommendations of the World Health Organization (WHO).
“Urgency to protect children”
According to Foodwatch, the distributors Monoprix, Casino, Carrefour, Auchan, Leclerc and Système U “have timidly entered the race”, highlighting their efforts to improve their social responsibility but without directly responding “to the urgency of protecting children” from this marketing.
None of the actions they presented includes all the nutritional recommendations of the WHO, according to the NGO.
Other distributors have not responded to the NGO’s requests, such as Aldi, Cora and Leader Price, Foodwatch says. The NGO also says that it continues to negotiate with supermarket chains considered “hesitant” and “demanding regulatory measures” by the government. The WHO has been urging retailers for years to ban the marketing of junk food aimed at children under 16, Foodwatch said.
Source: BFM TV
