How parents are being misled
Mums are being hoodwinked by manipulative food
manufacturers
Following on from last year's 'How parents are being misled'
report, we carried out a survey of mums to find out just how much
has changed in a year. And we found that 9 out of
10 mums are misled by tactics food
manufacturers use to market foods for kids that
are high in fat, salt and sugar.*
According to the survey mums believe that statements such as
'Wholegrain', 'Source of calcium' and 'No artificial flavouring or
colourings' indicate that a product is healthy.
However, our report below shows that this is not always the
case.
How parents are being misled - the report
The report, which was prepared by The Food
Commission on behalf of the BHF, was the first of its
kind and investigated how children’s breakfast
foods and lunchbox snacks are marketed to
parents. Marketers are sidestepping the
regulations to advertise foods high in fat, salt and sugar
intended for children directly to parents.
Our research confirmed that parents
are being bombarded with a riot of messages about what is
best for their kids.
Take action
Send an email to the Secretary of State
for Health to tell him that the Government needs to go further to
protect children from junk food advertising on TV.
The current regulation does not go far enough so we’re
calling for:
- A ban on all junk food advertising before 9pm
- Strong regulation of both broadcast and non broadcast
media
- A compulsory front of pack food labelling system with traffic light labels to
allow parents to see how healthy food products are at a
glance.
*This research was carried out by TNS Omnibus between 24
November-10 December 2009 using an online survey. 1454 parents aged
between 16-64 years old with kids aged 15 or under were interviewed
from a sample representative of the UK population.
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