A Look At Children’s Food & Beverage Ad Compliance
August 27th, 2015 | Matthew Chung, Manager, Communications and Content
It’s a significant year for The Canadian Children’s Food and Beverage Initiative (CAI).
The program recently introduced new, more stringent category-specific nutrition criteria that sets calorie maximums for products within 8 categories, establishes limits on fat, sodium and sugar and includes criteria for nutrients to encourage such as vitamins, minerals and fibre. By the end of the year, any product advertised to children under the age of 12 must meet the criteria or stop being advertised to kids. Any new products introduced in the interim must comply. (In Quebec, advertising any product to children 12 and under is not allowed by law).
It’s a major milestone for the initiative founded in 2008. Janet Feasby, VP Standards at Advertising Standards Canada, which administers CAI, estimates that a third of the products advertised to kids will have to either reformulated or no longer advertised.
“Members will have to submit nutritional information about their products to us and we will double check that they meet the criteria,” Feasby says.
Of the 18 participating companies, 7 have committed to advertising only better for you products to children under the age of 12 while 11 do not advertise to children under 12 at all, Feasby says.
In this context, it is perhaps no surprise that the ASC’s recently released 2014 Compliance Report once again found excellent compliance among the companies, which include: Campbell Company of Canada, Coca-Cola Ltd., Danone Inc., Ferrero Canada Ltd., Kellogg Canada Inc., Kraft Canada Inc., McDonald’s Restaurants of Canada Limited; Mondelēz Canada, Nestlé Canada Inc., Pepsico Canada ULC and Unilever Canada.
Currently no advertised product in the program has more than 200 calories and every advertised meal has fewer than 600 calories.
Feasby says she welcomes other food and beverage companies – even those that do not advertise to children – to join the participants, which she says are taking a leadership role in supporting the health and well-being of Canadian children.
Feasby says she welcomes other food and beverage companies – even those that do not advertise to children – to join the participants, which she says are taking a leadership role in supporting the health and well-being of Canadian children.
