Food industry offers to police ads aimed at kids

By Deborah Kotz, Globe Staff

In an answer to the government’s proposed guidelines for advertising junk food and sugary cereals to kids, the food industry today released its own plan to regulate itself without government intervention. The Children’s Food and Beverage Advertising Initiative -- formed by a coalition of 17 food companies including Coca-Cola, PepsiCo, General Mills, ConAgra, and Kellogg -- released standards agreed upon by the food industry for any products they market to kids.

To no surprise, the standards are less stringent than those proposed by several government agencies last April.

“We wanted to set challenging but realistic goals,” said Elaine Kolish, vice president and director of the CFBAI during a press call today.

Eric Decker, chair of the department of food science at the University of Massachusetts-Amherst, participated in the call and emphasized that the industry’s standards are “meaningful but practical” and a “way to energize people to eat healthier foods,” since many are still shunning collard greens and cauliflower even though they know they’re supposed to eat them. He’s not affiliated with CFBAI but has served as a paid consultant to several food companies including Coca-Cola and Kellogg on issues unrelated to advertising foods to children.

(No mention of the research showing that it may take several tries of putting those leafy greens on children’s plates before they’ll finally take a taste.)

The CFBAI proposal would still allow Tony the Tiger on Frosted Flakes as well as other cartoon characters on products -- something that would not be allowed under the government guidelines -- but only if the products contain no more than 10 grams of sugar per serving and meet other nutritional standards. Frosted Flakes currently contains 12 grams per serving, but plenty of other sugary cereals aimed at kids, including Honey Comb and Cinnamon Toast Crunch, already contain 10 grams.

The government proposal would allow cartoon characters only on products with no more than 8 grams of sugar per serving, no trans fat, and little saturated fat and would require the products to provide a “meaningful contribution to a healthful diet” by contributing from at least one of the following food groups: fruit, vegetable, whole grain, fat-free or low-fat dairy products, fish, lean poultry, eggs, nuts and seeds, beans.

And the CFBAI says it would also restrict saturated fat in products and lower sodium content to no more than 480 milligrams per serving, while the government wants sodium restricted to no more than 210 milligrams for a product to be marketed to kids.

Kolish said one-third of all food products aimed at children -- from fruit roll-ups, to cookies, to yogurt -- would have to alter their recipes based on the new industry guidelines, and added that the CFBAI plan is a “viable alternative to what the government proposed.”

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