Category Archives Issue 392

The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) has released its proposed voluntary principles for marketing food to children in an effort to encourage “stronger and more meaningful self-regulation by the food industry.” Designed by an FTC-led interagency working group with input from the Food and Drug Administration, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and U.S. Department of Agriculture, the guidelines seek “to improve the nutritional profiles of foods marketed directly to children ages 2-17 and to tap into the power of advertising and marketing to support healthful choices.” To this end, the preliminary standards would require that, by 2016, all products marketed to this age group (i) “make a meaningful contribution to a healthful diet” and (ii) “contain limited amounts of nutrients that have a negative impact on health or weight (saturated fats, trans fat, added sugars, and sodium).” To meet the first principle, marketed foods must feature “at least one of…