By Gom Mirian
The World Health Organisation (WHO) and the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) have released a new toolkit to help countries protect children from harmful food marketing.
A report jointly released by the organisations titled “Ending the Marketing of Unhealthy Foods to Children,” provides policymakers and public health professionals with guidance on how to create effective policies to prevent the promotion of unhealthy and junk food to children.
The release of the toolkit comes at a time when the prevalence of childhood obesity is on the rise.
According to WHO, over 340 million children and adolescents aged 5-19 were overweight or obese in 2016 and the toolkit aims to address this issue by providing evidence-based recommendations for countries to restrict the marketing of unhealthy food to children.
“The marketing of unhealthy food to children is a major contributor to the obesity epidemic and related diseases such as diabetes and cardiovascular disease,” said Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, Director-General of WHO. “This toolkit will help countries to implement effective policies and protect children’s health.”
According to the statement: “It supports governments to take action using a child rights perspective and complements WHO’s recent Guideline on Policies to protect children from the harmful impact of food marketing and UNICEF’s A child rights-based approach to food marketing: a guide for policymakers.
“Despite political commitments and the recognition that food marketing can violate children’s rights, evidence continues to show that children of all ages remain exposed to the aggressive marketing of foods and non-alcoholic beverages high in unhealthy fats, free sugars and/or salt. As food marketing proliferates globally, and increasing numbers of childhood becoming overweight, with obesity continuing to rise, the time for action is now,” it added.
