About a quarter of toddlers in Belgium are overweight. They get a third of their daily energy intake from highly processed foods. This is reported by the Superior Health Council. The High Health Council is particularly concerned about the frequent promotion of unhealthy food products, because it leads to children adopting bad eating habits.
The Superior Health Council denounces that it has been more than twelve years since the World Health Organization (WHO) called on governments to regulate the marketing of unhealthy food to children, but that not much has happened in Belgium since then.
“Research shows that the self-regulatory actions of the food industry are inadequate,” says the Superior Health Council. “Their commitment does not reduce children’s exposure to unhealthy food advertising and the systems they use to describe the nutritional value of their products are not strict enough. However, there are independent and scientifically based systems such as the Nutri-Score or that of WHO Europe.”
Approach
The Superior Health Council urges governments at all levels to intervene and introduce regulations that protect children up to the age of eighteen against the advertising and marketing of unhealthy food. All forms of unhealthy food marketing should be banned in places where children gather, such as crèches, schools, shelters and children’s clinics, as well as during sports or cultural activities aimed at children.
The Council also advocates a ban on broadcasting advertisements for unhealthy food on television between 6 am and 11 pm. Digital media and new marketing techniques must be monitored and tackled more strictly. “Because although regulations have stood still, the marketing landscape has continued to evolve enormously. Children are not only exposed to advertising much more often, the way in which it is done is also becoming more effective.”
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