The Committee for Advertising Practice has confirmed that restrictions on food and drink advertising to under-16s are to be widened to cover non-broadcast media. This means that as of July 1, fruit and vegetables will be the only food that can be advertised to children on television, the internet and billboards, and in magazines, newspapers and cinemas.
Contact Committee for Advertising Practice 020 7492 2100 www.cap.org.uk
One in five excluded pupils banned for drinking
The National Union of Teachers has called for an end to sponsorship links between sport and alcohol. The plea from the union’s general secretary, Steve Sinnott, came after a study revealed that one in five children either suspended or expelled are banned from their school for drinking related incidents.
Sinnott believes that the association between alcohol and sport, through sponsorship and otherwise, was partly to blame. “Drink-related deaths among young people are up 60% since 1991”, he told the teacher’s conference in Harrogate in April. “This must come to an end in advance of the Olympics in 2012”, he added.
An industry-commissioned survey has found that the UK is the worst country in Western Europe for meeting guidelines for responsible advertising of alcohol. Although 4% of advertising campaigns in the EU failed the standards test, that number rose to 7.4% in the UK alone.
The annual survey of the European Forum for Responsible Drinking found that the biggest offenders were those that linked social or sexual success with drinking. The report also stressed that most of the infringements were made by just three campaigns, one of which was made by Martell for cognac. The suggestion that responsible-drinking messages, already used in some European countries, should also be applied to the UK market is expected to fuel the binge drinking debate in the UK.
Contact European Forum for Responsible Drinking 0032 2 505 6070 www.efrd.org
M&S wins green poll
Socially and environmentally aware consumers have voted Marks & Spencer the greenest supermarket through a poll conducted by The Times, demonstrating the success of M&S’ high profile Look Behind the Label advertising campaign. Second on green issues was Sainsbury’s, with Tesco following in third position.
The poll also found that the ‘conscience led consumer’ was more likely to recommend products to their friends, giving them a powerful role in leading main-stream opinion. Yet most consumers were primarily concerned with value for money, availability of health products and convenience, giving Tesco the lead overall.
A new initiative – Ethical Eats – has been launched to promote ethical practices among London’s restaurants.
Established by London Food Link – a division of the food and farming charity, Sustain – and the aim is to encourage restaurants owners to make their supply chains more environmentally friendly and to educate diners. The initiative has been developed from London Food Link’s research into restaurants with the findings published in the One Planet Dining report, published in April. Examples of restaurants that have signed up are Moshi Moshi, Leon and S&M Café. They have met with representatives from Greenpeace and the Marine Stewardship Council.
Consumers and regulators are driving the sea change in the food and drink sector. Companies’ claims to have discovered the benefits of healthy eating out of the goodness of their own hearts is, well, so much hogwash.
Here at Briefing we are known for taking a pretty sceptical view of the wilder flight of fancies of the campaigning NGOs on corporate responsibility issues, so we think that gives us licence to puncture a few bubbles of corporate delusion too. Health claims is one of them.
Put simply, some companies’ claim to have discovered the benefits of healthy eating and drinking out of the goodness of their own hearts is just so much hogwash. There are really only two drivers of action. First, enough consumers are turning away from salt, sugar and fat to make it essential that the market orientated businesses react with ‘lite’ lines and some effort to reformulate their other products.
But much more powerful has been the genuine threat of mandatory labelling and bans on some advertising. Frankly, the Food Standards Agency and Ofcom, aided by media and NGO ‘scare’ campaigns, have done more in a short time than years of corporate soul searching.
Unfortunately the old military adage “grab them by the balls and their hearts and minds will follow” is as profound here as ever.
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Tackling health and obesity
Food companies can make a bigger effort in addressing consumer health issues, according to a report by Insight Investment and the International Business Leaders Forum. A Recipe for Success – how food companies can profit from consumer health offers a framework and set of recommendations aimed at helping food companies to address consumer health and obesity issues. It also offers examples of best practice covering topics from risk management to marketing and advertising and the promotion of physical activity.
Wal-Mart-owned supermarket Asda has announced that it will meet the Food Standard Agency’s voluntary salt reduction targets across all its own label food categories by the end of this year. The FSA aims to reduce the daily salt intake in the UK to 6g per person by 2010 and is working with food retailers to reduce the salt in processed foods. A white paper on public health – Choosing Health – was published in November 2006 and sets out the key principles for supporting people to make healthier choices. Through it the government aims to provide practical support to motivate people as well as making access to healthier choices easier.
The announcement means Asda will meet the required target nearly three years ahead of the 2010 deadline set by the FSA. The method which Asda has adopted to achieve this goal is to reformulate a number of its products to reduce their salt content, being careful to ensure their taste is maintained.
A number of supermarkets are going beyond wavering EU legislation and cutting trans-fats from their own-brand lines through a voluntary commitment made by the British Retail Consortium on February 1. According to the BRC, the EU is delaying the development of guidelines to restrict trans-fats in food and therefore the retailers have chosen to take action voluntarily instead. These include Iceland, Sainsbury’s, Marks & Spencer, Co-op, Waitrose, Boots and Asda. Trans-fats can form naturally in food but are also industrially added to extend the shelf-life of products and over consumption can lead to obesity.
Contact – British Retail Consortium, 020 7854 8900, www.brc.org.uk
O2 helps protect children
O2 has signed up to EU-wide guidelines on promoting safer mobile phone use with children and teenagers. Through this the mobile phone operator has strengthened its ties with Childnet International, an organisation that aims to make the internet a safer place for children, which has produced a checklist of questions for parents to ask a mobile operator when they buy a mobile phone for their child. O2 has also joined the Internet Watch Foundation, an organisation that works with the internet industry, government and police and provides a ‘hotline’ for the public and IT professionals who may come across potentially illegal content on the internet and wish to report it.
A report finds British food industry food labelling schemes to be flawed, companies introduce a new carbon labelling system and Coca-Cola expands its labelling system to include caffeine content.
Food labelling flawed
Food labelling schemes by the British food industry are flawed, according to a report by the National Heart Forum. The labelling is promoted by the food industry in competition with the Food Standards Agency’s ‘traffic light’ scheme, and displays the percentage Guideline Daily Amounts on the front of food products. The NHF report – Misconceptions and misinformation: The problems with the Guidelines Daily Amounts – was published on February 15, and found that the GDA labels can mislead and confuse consumers, are not appropriate for signposting and that companies are mixing GDAs with other claims and promotional labels. According to the NHF, consumer research shows that the FSA’s ‘traffic light’ system is better as it enables shoppers to make easy and healthy decisions when buying products.
David Miliband, UK secretary of state for environmental, food and rural affairs, used his speech at the National Farmers’ Union conference in February to highlight the need for environmental standards for packaging to be made as important an issue as nutritional labelling on products. Although admitting this would not be an easy task, he stressed the importance of a new system, which in the longer term would cover a range of issues from energy inputs to waste management. He outlined how this wider shared vision would be achieved, with measures that include documents detailing policy on bio-energy and non-food crops, and the setting up of the Rural Climate Change Forum, which will advise government on how to ensure farmers are equipped with practical information to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.
He added: “I want Defra to work with producers, retailers, environmental organisations and existing assurance bodies on whether we can agree on a green standard, that informs and empowers consumers and gives farmers recognition in the marketplace.”
Walkers, Boots and Innocent have committed to use a “carbon reduction label” in a bid to reduce the carbon footprint of their products.
The “carbon reduction label”, launched by the Carbon Trust on March 16, will be trialled by the companies and it is hoped that the new label will enable consumers to make purchasing decisions based on the carbon content of the products on display – the number on the label will be a measure of
the product’s carbon emissions from source to shelf.
The Carbon Trust developed the label by using experimental methodology for measuring carbon and will be phased in over a wide range of products.
A special technical advisory group – with representatives from government, business, environment and consumer groups – will review the methodology during the initial phase of the scheme and will consult industry and other stakeholder groups in the process.
Over half of the most heavily advertised children’s food and beverage products that feature fruit on their packaging do not contain fruit at all, according to a study by the Strategic Alliance for Healthy Food and Activity Environments, a US-based coalition of nutrition and physical activity advocates.
Meanwhile, Nestlé and Kellogg’s are among the companies criticised in a recent report for promoting high-sugar, high-fat brands to children, sometimes presenting them as healthy options.
Choice, an Australian consumer watchdog, looked at the links between consumption of these snacks and the incidence of childhood obesity. Foods that Make Kids Fatter Faster focuses on ten brands aimed at children that contributed to an energy intake in excess of the recommended daily limit for children.
Coca-Cola North America will expand its nutrition labelling to include caffeine content on all of its drinks products in the United States that contain the ingredient.
The roll-out will start with Coca-Cola Classic in May and will expand to other brands during the year. The new labels will provide information on the exact amount of caffeine in each serving of the drink.
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