The Associated Press issued a release early this morning detailing the new guidelines set out by the government regulating junk food advertisements aimed at kids. These new guidelines urge companies to aim food at youngsters only if the products are low in fats, sugars, and sodium, and only if the product contains specifically healthy ingredients.
Although these guidelines aren’t mandatory, children may be seeing far less of their favorite advertisement cartoons as the government explicitly states that if companies want to continue their current advertisement campaigns, they must be actively working to make their products healthier.
In a statement to be released later today, the Federal Trade Commission, Agriculture Department, Food and Drug Administration and the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention have stated that the guidelines, which will be phased in over the next five years, have been put into place to "encourage a marketing environment that supports, rather than undermines, parents' efforts to get their children to eat more healthfully.”
As of now, it’s unclear as to which companies will abide by the new guidelines and which will ignore them, but with major companies including McDonalds, General Mills Inc., Kellogg Co., Kraft Foods Global and PepsiCo Inc. joining a similar initiative spearheaded by the Better Business Bureau, the demand for change is clearly being heard.
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Photo by: Browns River Middle School
