A new report from the British Heart Foundation and the Children’s Food Campaign explores the online marketing tactics used by food manufacturers to encourage children to eat foods high in fat, salt and sugar.
They’ve looked at the most common tactics used to promote these foods to children using the internet in their report: The 21st century gingerbread house: How companies are marketing junk food to children online.
Our Director of Research, Dr Michael Nelson, told the Independent on Sunday: “In the week when the latest figures on obesity in children showed that one in three are overweight or obese by the time they reach the age of 11, this is another example of how their long-term health is under threat from a poor diet and the horribly confusing messages with which they are bombarded every day.
“Even with good progress to improve food in schools and cooking skills for children, little headway is being made to reduce obesity and this is where legislation really does have a role to play in protecting them – if we want our children to reach their full potential at school, grow into healthier adults and reduce the spiralling costs of obesity and related conditions to the NHS.”
