Junk food and overweight children: NGO Foodwatch calls on supermarkets to act

It is too tempting for the children’s association to advertise certain harmful products. The consumer advocacy NGO Foodwatch called on supermarkets to redouble their efforts to protect young people from marketing that sells them foods that are too fatty, too sweet, or too salty by banning “immediate advertising and playful marketing” of such products.

She sent a letter to various retail chains, in which she reminded of the misconduct of these products. Some supermarkets responded that they have already taken restrictive measures, others adhere to them.

Between attractive packaging and targeted advertising, food distribution plays a “key role” in the rise of overweight and obesity among children, says the NGO, which released a barometer on Wednesday regarding the marketing of these “unhealthy foods.” targeting children. “Supermarkets play an important role in the content of our plates,” says Foodwatch.

One in six overweight children

One in six children in France are overweight or obese, and most will remain so into adulthood, the NGO recalls. Distributors have made a “serious and responsible” commitment to ban ads aimed at children under 16, Foodwatch notes.

This is the case of Biocoop, which ensures that it does not produce “any advertising aimed at the use of children” as stipulated in its “communication agreement” applicable to all brand stores.

In January, Lidl announced it would stop advertising “junk” food targeted at children and ban playful packaging for its own brands. Intermarché is committed to ensuring that the recipes of all “children’s identity” products are “improved” in accordance with the recommendations of the World Health Organization (WHO).

According to Foodwatch, distributors Monoprix, Casino, Carrefour, Auchan, Leclerc and Système U have “timidly entered the race”, emphasizing their efforts to increase social responsibility but not directly responding “to the urgent need to protect the children of this marketing”.

According to the NGOs, none of the actions they have presented include all of the WHO recommendations on nutrition. Other distributors such as Aldi, Cora and Leader Price did not respond to NGO inquiries, Foodwatch said.

The NGO also says it continues to negotiate with supermarket chains, which are considered “fluctuating” and “requiring regulatory action” from the government. The WHO has been urging retailers for years to ban the sale of unhealthy food to people under 16, according to Foodwatch.