Abstract
Marketing unhealthy food and beverages to children is a pervasive problem despite the negative impact it has on children’s taste preferences, eating habits and health. In an effort to mitigate this influence on Canadian children, Health Canada has developed a nutrient profile model with two options for national implementation. This study examined the application of Health Canada’s proposed model to 374 child-targeted supermarket products collected in Calgary, AB, Canada and compared this with two international nutrient profile models. Products were classified as permitted or not permitted for marketing to children using the Health Canada model (Option 1 and Option 2), the WHO Regional Office for Europe model, and the Pan-American Health Organization (PAHO) model. Results were summarized using descriptive statistics. Overall, Health Canada’s Option 1 was the most stringent, permitting only 2.7% of products to be marketed to children, followed by PAHO (7.0%), WHO (11.8%), and Health Canada’s Option 2 (28.6%). Across all models, six products (1.6%) were universally permitted, and nearly 60% of products were universally not permitted on the basis of nutritional quality. Such differences in classification have significant policy and health-related consequences, given that different foods will be framed as “acceptable” for marketing to children—and understood as more or less healthy—depending on the model used.
Highlights
In October 2016, Health Canada launched the Healthy Eating Strategy, with the goal of improving the food environment for Canadians [1]
To assess the strictness of Health Canada’s proposed recommendations for food marketing to children, we evaluated the dataset according to two additional nutrient profiling models: the WHO Regional Office for Europe Model [18] and the Pan American Health Organization’s (PAHO)
This study provides a timely look at how Health Canada’s proposed nutrient profiling options would impact the child-targeted foods that are currently available in the Canadian supermarket
Summary
In October 2016, Health Canada launched the Healthy Eating Strategy, with the goal of improving the food environment for Canadians [1]. Alongside its commitment to improve nutrition information and access to nutritious foods, the strategy pledged to protect children from the influence of unhealthy food and beverage marketing. Providing such protection is the very premise of Bill S-228, The. Child Health Protection Act, which the Senate is expected to pass in 2019. In preparation for the implementation of Bill S-228, Health Canada has been developing the precise criteria for defining unhealthy foods and determining child-directed marketing. This move to restrict food marketing to children reflects a broader cultural wave—and evidence base—documenting the deleterious effects of food marketing on children’s taste preferences and dietary habits. The World Health Assembly called on its member states to adopt the WHO Set of Recommendations on the Marketing of Foods and Non-alcoholic Beverages to Children [2], subsequently providing a detailed framework for policy makers to implement the
Sign-in/Register to view highlights & summary Sign-in/Register to access full text options 
Free) 
Talk to us
Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have
Schedule a call
