Yale University’s Rudd Center for Food Policy & Obesity has published a study claiming that parents misinterpret nutrition-related health claims used on children’s cereal boxes. Jennifer L. Harris, et al., “Nutrition related claims on children’s cereals: what do they mean to parents and do they influence willingness to buy?,” Public Health Nutrition, August 2, 2011. Researchers asked 306 parents with children between ages 2 and 11 to view images of “box fronts for children’s cereals of below-average nutritional quality, as assessed by a validated nutrient profiling model,” featuring claims such as “supports your child’s immunity,” “whole grain,” “fibre,” “calcium and vitamin D,” and “organic.” The study authors provided “possible meanings for these claims” and asked participants “to select any that applied with the option to write in additional meanings,” as well as “indicate how the claim would affect their willingness to buy the product.” According to the study, “the majority of…
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The Institute of Medicine (IOM) recently issued a summary of an October 21, 2010, workshop titled “Legal Strategies in Childhood Obesity Prevention,” where public policy experts and stakeholders discussed national, state and local health initiatives that employ legal strategies “to bring about change as well as the challenges in implementing these changes.” The workshop summary reflects attendees’ views on various topics, including (i) the potential of legal strategies to address childhood obesity; (ii) how legal strategies have been used in other public health areas, such as firearm injury prevention; (iii) actions by the Federal Trade Commission, Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and other federal agencies; (iv) food industry perspectives; (v) whether regulations and taxes can prevent obesity; (vi) legal approaches to increase physical activity in communities; (vii) the use of litigation to effect policy changes; and (viii) the role of attorneys general and local public health agencies. More specifically, workshop…
Seeking either clarification or dismissal of claims alleging that it has violated state law by republishing the product or service preferences (“Likes”) of children younger than age 18 as accompaniments to paid advertisements without first obtaining parental consent, Facebook, Inc. argues that the claims are insufficiently pleaded, fail to state a claim or are preempted by federal law. Dawes ex rel. E.K.D. v. Facebook, Inc., No. 11-00461 (S.D. Ill., motion filed August 1, 2011). Facebook explains that the plaintiffs are teenagers who shared their Internet “Likes” with their friends and that Facebook may then redisplay the preference to the same friends along with an advertisement for the relevant company’s website. According to Facebook, the plaintiffs have failed to indicate how they have been injured because they failed to allege “that their personal information had any ascertainable ‘value’ or any facts supporting the claimed ‘lessening’ of that value.” Facebook also contends…
A federal court in New Jersey has determined that Pennsylvania and California residents may pursue claims against New Jersey-based Nestlé Healthcare Nutrition, Inc. in consolidated putative class actions alleging that the company’s BOOST Kid Essentials® beverage did not provide its advertised health benefits for children. Scheuerman v. Nestlé Healthcare Nutrition, Inc., No. 10-3684; Johnson v. Nestlé Healthcare Nutrition, Inc., No. 10-5628 (D.N.J., decided August 1, 2011) (unpublished). So ruling, the court granted in part and denied in part Nestlé’s motion to dismiss. While the court ruled that the California plaintiff may not bring a cause of action under the New Jersey Consumer Fraud Act (NJCFA), because the defendant’s presence in the jurisdiction alone is insufficient under conflict-of-law rules to apply the state’s law, the court did give the California plaintiff the opportunity to amend her complaint to allege consumer fraud under California law. Because the Pennsylvania plaintiff alleged that he…
The National Advertising Division (NAD) of the Council of Better Business Bureaus and the Children’s Advertising Review Unit (CARU) have announced the agendas for their joint 2011 annual conferences slated for October 3-5, 2011, in New York. The two-day NAD conference, “What’s New in Advertising Law, Claim Support and Self-Regulation,” will include keynote remarks by David Vladeck, director of the Federal Trade Commission’s (FTC’s) Bureau of Consumer Protection, as well as sessions on online behavioral advertising, claim substantiation, mobile marketing, litigation and FTC enforcement priorities, and the future of advertising self-regulation. Immediately following the NAD session, CARU will host a one-day conference focused on privacy and digital issues in youth marketing, with expert panels dedicated to new FTC regulations, multimedia and social media advertising to children, and responsible food marketing to children.
The 17 companies comprising the Children’s Food and Beverage Advertising Initiative (CFBAI) have reportedly agreed to abide by new uniform nutrition criteria as part of a voluntary effort to encourage healthier dietary choices among children. Under the new rules, CFBAI signatories have pledged not to market the following products to children: (i) juices with added sugars and more than 160 calories per serving, (ii) ready-to-drink flavored milks containing more than 24 grams of total sugars per 8 fluid ounces, and yogurt containing more than 170 calories and 23 g of total sugars per 6 ounces; (iii) seeds, nuts, nut butters, and spreads with more than 220 calories, 3.5 g of saturated fat, 240 milligrams of sodium, and 4 g of sugar per 2 tablespoons; and (iv) main dishes and entrees with more than 350 calories, 10 percent calories from saturated fat, 600 mg of sodium, and 15 g of sugar…
“House Republicans are siding with food companies resisting the Obama administration’s efforts to pressure them to stop advertising junk food for children,” writes Associated Press reporter Mary Clare Jalonick in a July 6, 2011, article examining the efforts of individual legislators to stymie proposed Federal Trade Commission (FTC) food marketing guidelines. According to Jalonick, while food companies have lobbied “aggressively” against the proposal, Republican representatives have sought to include a provision in next year’s FTC budget “that would require the government to study the potential costs and impacts of the guidelines before implementing them.” As Representative Jo Ann Emerson (R-Mo.) explained, the guidelines might otherwise “lead to extraordinary pressure from the federal government” on those who do not conform to the voluntary measure. But consumer advocates like the Center for Science in the Public Interest (CSPI) have disputed this reasoning. “The industry is exaggerating the influence of these voluntary regulations to gin…
Several consumer protection organizations have filed a citizen petition with the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), seeking a rulemaking “for labeling and point of sale advisories concerning mercury in seafood to minimize methylmercury exposure to women of childbearing age and children.” According to the petition, some 200,000 children in the United States, between ages two and five, have blood mercury levels nearly 50 percent higher than base levels recommended by the Environmental Protection Agency. Noting that the percentages of women and children exceeding recommended mercury levels are higher in coastal regions and among African-Americans, Asians, the affluent, and those in the fishing industry, the petition claims that consumers “do not know the risks inherent in exposing themselves and their families to this potent neurotoxin.” Jane Hightower, a physician who authored Diagnosis: Mercury—Money, Politics & Poison, signed the petition, which was also brought on behalf of Earthjustice, the Zero Mercury Working…
The U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO) has released a report recommending that the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) improve its enforcement of the Children’s Television Act (CTA) of 1990, which restricts advertising during children’s programs, requires a certain amount of informational/educational programming as a condition of broadcast license renewals and prohibits the use of program characters in advertising during any program for children younger than age 12. On the basis of its review of FCC data, interviews with FCC and broadcast station officials and focus groups with parents, GAO expressed concerns about the agency’s lack of specific standards to assess informational (or “core children’s”) programming. The report also found that most self-reported violations involved broadcasters exceeding advertising time limits. According to the report, core children’s programming on commercial broadcast stations “increased significantly” from 1998 to 2010, along with cable and satellite providers—“to which core children’s programming requirements do not apply—increasing the number…
Harvard University obesity experts have reportedly proposed that some parents should lose custody of their extremely overweight children to foster care. In a July 13, 2011, Journal of the American Medical Association opinion piece titled “State Intervention in Life-Threatening Childhood Obesity,” David Ludwig and Lindsey Murtagh suggest that the same legal precedents that protect undernourished children should apply to severely obese kids. According to news sources, Ludwig, an obesity specialist at Harvard-affiliated Children’s Hospital Boston, and Murtagh, a lawyer and Harvard School of Public Health researcher, claim that removing a severely obese child from the home may be legally justifiable because of imminent heath risks such as Type 2 diabetes, liver problems and breathing issues. State intervention “ideally will support not just the child but the whole family, with the goal of reuniting child and family as soon as possible,” after possible parenting instruction, Ludwig reportedly said. The commentary has…
