Experts call in Spain to review the regulation on advertising to limit the exposure of children to ads for unhealthy foods
Half of the advertising that children and adolescents see in France is for unhealthy food, according to a recent study by the French Health Agency (Santé Publique) that has been in favor of restricting the dissemination of commercial messages about high-fat products, sugar and salt, especially on television, in youth time.
For the study, it collects data on HFSS food advertising in France in 2012, 2015 and 2018 and analyzes its content on television in three specific time slots, those set for ages 4 to 12 years, 13 to 17 years and over 18 years old.
For the analysis, it also calculates the nutritional profile of food products in accordance with the WHO guidelines and Nutri-Score, a scheme that classifies foods with a color code that ranges from dark green for "healthier" foods to dark red for "less healthy" foods.
In a complementary way, the health agency compiled advertising spending in all media, more specifically, for the top 20 food advertisers, with the result that in 2018 the advertising spending for food, beverage and catering businesses in all The country's media reached 1,100 million euros, which represents 9.3% of all estimated spending on advertising for that year.
Of those 1,100 million euros, 60% was attributed to television and 20% to the internet; 48% of the amount was also used to advertise Nutri-Score D and E products.
Among the results, the French agency discovered that 53.3% of the advertising on Nutri-Score D and E products was seen by children and 52.5% by adolescents. Half of these advertisements were also aired at prime-time, between 7:00 p.m. and 10:00 p.m., when 20% of French children and adolescents are in front of televisions.
By food category, he found that up to one-third of total ad spend that year was concentrated in commercial reviews for fast food, chocolate, and sugary drinks. "These results are in favor of restricting the commercialization of foods of low nutritional quality, especially on television, at times of greatest exposure to children and adolescents," said the French health agency in light of its analysis.
Regulation on junk food advertising is laxer in France compared to other countries such as the United Kingdom, where food and drink companies are prohibited from promoting HFSS products on children's television or on any media channel when more than 25% of the audience are under 16 years of age.
Its control is part of the concern that obesity has tripled worldwide since 1975. The World Health Organization (WHO) considers, precisely, a determining cause for the increase in these indices is the excessive consumption of foods with a high energy content, particularly those high in fat, sugar and salt.
The marketing and advertising of this type of food (HFSS for its acronym in English) is critical in creating what experts call an “obesogenic environment” that is at the root of the global epidemic of obesity among adults and youth.
The fact that overweight youth are more likely to become overweight or obese adults encourages the idea that limiting exposure to unhealthy food advertising at an early aze could help combat obesity in adult populations.
In Spain, food advertising aimed at children under 12 years of age has been regulated since 2005 by a system of self-control by companies (PAOS Code), although some studies reveal that the situation does not differ too much from what is seen in the country Gaul.
Ads for unhealthy products on the rise
A recent study led by researchers from the Open University of Catalonia (UOC) and the Pompeu Fabra University (UPF) maintains that advertising of unhealthy products, basically soft drinks and sugary drinks, has grown by 66% in the last five years in Spain.
Another study by the same researchers published at the end of 2019 showed that the most viewed food advertisements by children between 4 and 12 years of age in Spain are for products of low nutritional value. "We believe that the PAOS Code, which aims to protect minors, should be revised because it is continuously violated. It should also be expanded, since it does not take into account the speech and language of advertisements, which can confuse children by attributing qualities to the products that are not true ", say the experts.
The Minister of Consumption, Alberto Garzón Espinosa, has already announced recently that the PAOS Code will be strengthened in depth given the "clear consensus among experts and nutrition specialists on the fact that the system is not working properly" because "advertising in infant feeding it hardly has control " .
For its part, the Spanish Agency for Food Safety and Nutrition (Aesan) is working on a proposal for a new code, more in line with the objective of regulating the advertising that minors actually receive. The reform will present as the main novelty the increase in age to raise protection from the current 12 years to 15 and to prohibit the advertising of foods that Nutri-Score indicates with a red code.
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