Strengthening Global Legislative Actions to Protect Children from the Harmful Impacts of Unhealthy Food and Non-alcoholic Beverage Marketing

AbstractPurpose of ReviewDrawing on current global food marketing policies and the academic literature, we illustrate why and how existing legislative approaches can be strengthened to better achieve the goal of protecting children from the harmful impacts of unhealthy food and non-alcoholic beverage marketing.Recent FindingsAround the world, governments are starting to implement legislative actions to protect children from exposure to unhealthy food and non-alcoholic beverage marketing. However, the scope of these approaches is limited and unlikely to meet their objective of safeguarding children from harmful marketing practices. The key opportunities for strengthening legislative design include increasing the age threshold of a child to 18  years; the broadening of focus from ‘child-directed’ marketing to all marketing that children are exposed to; designing tailored regulations for multiple settings, media and techniques; strengthening underlying food classification systems; balancing a comprehensive approach with stepwise regul atory implementation; and strengthening monitoring and enforcement systems.SummaryOur review and recommendations can aid policymakers when designing legislative approaches to protect children from the harmful impacts of unhealthy food and non-alcoholic beverage marketing.

Source: Current Obesity Reports - February 13, 2023 Category: Eating Disorders & Weight Management Source Type: research