Children's food in the foodwatch test Too fat and too sweet

Foodwatch: Many children's foods are fat and sugar bombs
A new study shows that many foods advertised specifically for children are extremely unhealthy. The consumer organization foodwatch found in a test that the majority of children's food is not balanced. Medical societies and health organizations require legal regulations.

Advertising lies at children's food
In the supermarket you can find numerous foods that are aimed specifically at children. For example, it promotes packaging with added value, such as extra milk for healthy bones and teeth. Consumer advocates criticize such advertising lies in children's food, however, for years. Child milk products are often more of a sweet, as they contain enormous amounts of sugar and fat. The high consumption of such foods can have health consequences. For this reason, more and more infants suffer from tooth decay in this country and also obesity is increasing dramatically in children. According to experts, about 15 percent of children in Germany are overweight, six percent even obese.

Healthy eating is especially important for children, but many children's foods are unsuitable for this purpose. (Image: highwaystarz / fotolia.com)

Unhealthy products for children
Although the food industry has imposed a voluntary self-restriction on child marketing since 2007 in the so-called "EU Pledge". But the manufacturers in Germany continue to promote almost exclusively unhealthy products specifically to children. This is shown by a new study by foodwatch, which the consumer organization has now presented together with the German Obesity Society, the German Diabetes Association and diabetesDE - German Diabetes Aid in Berlin. The consumer advocates have examined for the study all products marketed to children of those manufacturers who have signed the "EU Pledge".

Politics called for action
They found that 252 out of a total of 281 tested products are not balanced children's foods according to the requirements of the World Health Organization (WHO). However, the EU pledge has different guideline values. For example, about 30 percent of sugar is still in order there, while the WHO only allows a sugar content of 15 percent. Foodwatch and the medical societies and health organizations called on Federal Health Minister Hermann Gröhe and Federal Minister of Food Christian Schmidt to allow marketing directed at children only for food that meet the WHO criteria. Voluntary measures by the food industry did not seem to be enough.

Voluntary self-commitments apparently ineffective
"With well-sounding self-commitments, the food industry stages itself as a pioneer in the fight against obesity and malnutrition - and at the same time markets tons of sweets and junk food specifically to children. A sad PR maneuver that only distracts from your own responsibility. The food industry is not part of the solution but the crux of the problem, "Oliver Huizinga, an expert in children's marketing at foodwatch, quoted in a press release from the organization. It was also criticized that there is no regulation for the design of packaging and advertising in supermarkets in the "EU Pledge". For example, foodwatch pointed out a few weeks ago that many corporations are misleading kids with comic characters into unhealthy eating habits.

Wrong diet leads to obesity
Dr. Dietrich Garlichs, Managing Director of the German Diabetes Association and spokesman for the German Alliance for Noncommunicable Diseases (DANK) said: "The so-called self-commitment of the food industry for children's food advertising is a sham and deceives the consumer. Most 'children's food' are not food, but sweets. Marketing for 'children's food' must be curbed by law, otherwise we will not stop the wave of malnutrition and adiposity in children and adolescents. "Overweight or obesity in many cases leads to complications such as type 2 diabetes, high blood pressure or cardiovascular disease. Since the 1980s and 1990s, the proportion of overweight children has increased by 50 percent. The main cause of this is considered to be wrong nutrition. Children eat too many sweets, greasy snacks and drink too many sugary drinks; Fruits and vegetables, however, come too short. (Ad)