Defining unhealthy food for regulating marketing to children—What are Australia's options?

Aim To compare six nutrient profiling models for suitability in food marketing to children regulation. Methods Products (n = 220) advertised at transport hubs were classified as eligible/ineligible to be advertised to children using an Australian government developed guide (Council of Australian Gov...

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Published in:Nutrition & dietetics 2021-09, Vol.78 (4), p.406-414
Main Authors: Watson, Wendy L., Khor, Phay Yean, Hughes, Clare
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
advertising
children
Councils
Food
food marketing
Marketing
nutrient profiling
regulation
Citations: Items that this one cites
Items that cite this one
Online Access:Get full text
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
Description
Summary:Aim To compare six nutrient profiling models for suitability in food marketing to children regulation. Methods Products (n = 220) advertised at transport hubs were classified as eligible/ineligible to be advertised to children using an Australian government developed guide (Council of Australian Governments), the Health Star Rating system before and after the modifications made in 2020, World Health Organization Western Pacific Region and Europe nutrient profile criterion and the NOVA food classification system. Agreement between models was determined using Cohen's Kappa. Results The Council of Australian Governments' guide was able to classify more products than the other models (n = 210) and was easy to use as it did not require nutrition information. It agreed most closely with NOVA (moderate agreement). The proportion of foods classified as eligible to be marketed (most strict) was lowest for NOVA (10%), similar for Council of Australian Governments and the World Health Organisation models (16%‐17%) and highest for Health Star Rating models (26%‐28%). Conclusions The Council of Australian Governments' guide provides simple, easy to use profiling criteria aligned with Australian dietary advice. Political will is now required to incorporate a profiling model within government‐endorsed food marketing regulation.
ISSN:1446-6368
1747-0080
DOI:10.1111/1747-0080.12658