Dr Alexandra Chung, Monash University
Babies and toddlers can’t yet write a grocery shopping list, but they are considered fair game when it comes to food marketing. Our new research published in the Australian and New Zealand Journal of Public Health reveals how babies and toddlers are being targeted with front-of-pack food marketing.
We collected images and product information for 230 baby and toddler food items found in two major supermarkets and analysed all front-of-pack marketing features to identify the promotional techniques used by manufacturers. Baby and toddler foods included foods sold for babies and young children aged six months to three years.
We found that nine in 10 food packages displayed marketing techniques specifically designed to target young children. Child-appealing marketing was dominated by visual techniques including bright colours and graphics, cartoons and branded characters, and images of a baby or young child on the front of the package. We know from extensive research that food marketing works, influencing children’s food requests, preferences, and diets.
Our findings demonstrate the ways in which food manufacturers deliberately use child-appealing visuals to attract the attention of very young children and make their products seem fun and desirable. But our study also showed that children are not the only target of front-of-pack marketing. Our analysis found up to 10 marketing techniques aimed at parents on the front-of-pack of baby and toddler foods.
All products examined in our study included front-of-pack marketing techniques that appealed to health. For example, ninety-six percent of products displayed an image of a healthy food, usually a fruit or vegetable, on the front-of-pack, even if this only made up a very small proportion of ingredients. Fifty-eight percent of products displayed claims about the nutritional content of the food. And around half of all products promoted non-nutrient claims such as ‘organic’ or ‘natural’. Many of these claims overstate the health benefits of commercial baby and toddler foods and undermine parents’ intentions to feed their children well.
The reality is that many commercially available baby and toddler foods are not nutritionally adequate and fail to meet the World Health Organization (WHO) standards for foods for infants and young children. All too often, commercially produced baby and toddler foods contain too much sugar and lack essential nutrients such as iron and calcium.
Our findings also raise concerns about the excessive availability and promotion of snacks and sweet foods for young children. Fifty percent of the foods marketed for toddlers aged one to three years were snack foods, and twenty-one percent of the toddler foods were classified as confectionary based on their high sugar content. This included products often promoted as healthy such as fruit bars and yoghurt buttons. There is limited room for processed snack foods in children’s diets and regular consumption can displace intake of more healthy, whole foods.
This is of particular concern because diet-related illness is a leading contributor to Australia’s burden of disease. One in four Australian children live with overweight or obesity and most children fall short of meeting dietary guidelines.
Early childhood is a critical time for the development of healthy dietary behaviours. The foods that young children are exposed to and regularly consume become the foundation of their eating habits. Yet young children and their caregivers are being targeted with promotional marketing that encourages the consumption of commercially made foods. There is an urgent need for stronger regulation to protect the diets of our youngest children from industry influence.
Protecting children from the harms of food marketing is recognised as a global priority. The WHO has recently released guidance to support governments to design and implement policies that promote healthy diets among infants and young children.
Publication of this research comes at an important time in the Australian policy context. At their recent meeting, Australia’s Food Ministers agreed that packaged foods and drinks high in sugar will no longer be allowed display ‘no added sugar’ claims. This will result in changes to the way infant and toddler foods can be promoted and is an important step towards protecting consumers from misleading marketing. This demonstrates government commitment to creating healthier food environments and has been applauded by the public health community. However, this alone will not go far enough to protect children’s diets from the harms of food marketing.
At the same meeting, the Food Ministers agreed baby and toddler food composition and labelling are important issues for consideration and a consultation paper will now be progressed in early 2024. It is critical that this leads to policy change.
A comprehensive approach by governments, that ensures baby and toddler foods are nutritionally adequate and do not target children or mislead parents with deceptive labelling or marketing, is urgently needed. Australia’s youngest children are depending on their government to put their health ahead of food industry profits.
You can read the open access article “Front-of-pack marketing on infant and toddler foods: Targeting children and their caregivers” here, or listen to Dr Chung talk about baby and toddler food on ABC Radio Melbourne.
Dr Chung et al’s research was published in the Australian and New Zealand Journal of Public Health, a publication of the Public Health Association of Australia. PHAA promoted the research to media, resulting in widespread coverage across media outlets such as Sunrise (Channel 7), 6PR Perth, 5AA Adelaide, The West Australian (paywalled), The New Daily and The Newcastle Herald (paywalled).
Dr Alexandra Chung is a VicHealth Postdoctoral Research Fellow, in the Health and Social Care Unit, School of Public Health and Preventive Medicine at Monash University.
Photo credit: Karolina Grabowska / Pexels.com
Leave a Reply