Children and food advertising campaign
Sustain, the alliance for better food and farming, is campaigning for more stringent guidelines on advertising food to children.

This is seen as one way to counter the detrimental effect on children's current and future health posed by excessive intake of fat, sugar and salt. The food industry spent more than £250 million in the year 2000 promoting processed foods high in fat, sugar or salt. Children are persistently exposed to commercial messages on TV and radio, in magazines, on the internet, in the cinema, on packaging and even at school. Sustain's report TV dinners, published in July, found that between 95% and 99% of advertisements during children's programming was for fatty, salty or sugary foods. Research suggests that young children do not understand the motives behind advertising and often see adverts as entertainment or as a source of reliable information. Current voluntary codes of practice relate only to individual advertisements and do not address the cumulative effect of advertising and marketing over periods of time.

The NHF has given its support to the campaign which calls for the introduction of legislation which protects children from the advertising and marketing of foods which contribute to an unhealthy diet. Legislation in the form of statutory controls are needed to end commercial activities which promote such foods specifically to children, irrespective of methods used. So far Sustain have received pledges of support from over 50 national organisations, including professional and academic bodies, medical and children's charities.

For more information contact Charlie Powell at Sustain on 020 7837 1228 or see their website at www.sustainweb.org

CRC/MORI poll on children’s fruit and veg intake
In November a MORI poll commissioned by the Cancer Research Campaign and the supermarket chain Iceland revealed that between five and six per cent of schoolchildren had eaten either no fruit or vegetables in the seven days prior to the poll. Government guidelines and the CRC recommend eating at least 35 portions of fruit and vegetables a week; this survey found that on average children are eating less than 13 portions each week, i.e. a third of the recommended level. The survey was carried out amongst 2635 schoolchildren aged 11-16 yrs in 111 schools in England and Wales.

Not only is this serious due to the effects on children’s current health, but also as eating habits may be fixed in childhood and so the next generation may lack vital nutrients which would be gained from the recommended five-a-day of fruit and vegetables. The young@heart initiative aims to address just such trends.

Further details of the survey can be found on the Cancer Research Campaign’s website at: www.crc.org.uk

School Meals Bill
In June a campaign was launched to introduce a Bill in the Scottish Parliament that will provide universally free and nutritional school meals for children in Scotland. The campaign is being led by NHF member organisation, the Child Poverty Action Group. The Bill proposes free school meals to all those in primary, secondary and special needs local authority- managed schools in Scotland. Its introduction would address the problem of low uptake of free meals, as universally free meals will be free of any stigma and there will be no differentiation between children from differing backgrounds. The campaign also puts forward nutritional standards for school meals to safeguard the vital nutritional contribution made by school meals to children's diets. These standards will complement and go beyond the current minimum nutritional standards in England introduced in April 2001.