Belgian toddlers, children and teenagers are worryingly often overweight. In anew advisory report, the Superior Health Council (SHC) asks for strong actionto be taken against this evolution. With a ban on Samson sausage andPlopkoeken, restrictions on TV advertising, measures against Tiktok recipesand even guidelines for Jeroen Meus.
Koen Baumers
Today at 16:00
A hunk of butter, salt, lemon, herbs, honey and garnish of your choice. Beholdthe “butter plate”, a recipe that was viewed 8 million times on Tiktok lastweek. In February last year, Colruyt suddenly noticed a 50 percent increase infeta cheese sales. The hype behind it: a recipe with a full block of feta,some olive oil and a handful of cherry tomatoes.
The Superior Health Council (SHC) views the popularity of “food influencers”and their unhealthy recipes with dismay. “About one in four toddlers, one insix children and one in nine adolescents in Belgium are overweight. They getone-third of their daily energy intake from ultra-processed foods. Not sosurprising when you see how often children are the target of targetedmarketing campaigns for unhealthy food and drink.”
In a new advisory on unhealthy diets and its impact on children, the SHC asksto “at least force” them to use hashtags that make it clear that they are notnutrition experts.
Cooking shows also get a wipe out of the pan. For example, the recipes onMaster chef junior did not meet healthy diet standards. The SHC recommendsthat there be clear guidelines and also targets TV chef Jeroen Meus: inparticular, “the public broadcaster, which has a serving function for thepublic and must show good examples”, according to the SHC, must makecommitments regarding the nutritional value of dishes. for which it isadvertised.
Ban on all marketing
The SHC advises that TV advertising for unhealthy food should no longer beaimed at children. She even argues for a total ban between 6 am and 11 pm andalso calls attention to advertisements in games on smartphones and tablets.Even sports sponsorship and product placement must be curbed.
And then we’ve only talked about the screens. Because children are even moresusceptible to advertising than adults, the SHC is requesting “a ban on theuse of marketing techniques that appeal to children”. She refers to the use of“cartoon characters and familiar characters” on biscuit packaging and ultra-processed meats. For the good listener: Samson sausage and Plopkoeken are aneyesore.
In the new advice, the SHC makes firewood for the entire policy on unhealthyfood in Belgium. Intervene, at all levels, to protect children from marketingunhealthy food: that is the advice. “In Belgium, the legislation in thisregard is very limited and there is mainly self-regulation by the foodindustry. That is insufficient.”
“It has been more than 12 years since the World Health Organization (WHO)called on governments to regulate the marketing of unhealthy foods tochildren. Since then, not much has happened in Belgium,” says the SuperiorHealth Council sternly.
Other countries are already doing it. In Spain, advertising for unhealthy foodhas been banned since this year, in Norway since 1992. In the United Kingdom,from 2023 there will be a ban on TV advertising for sweets and fats until 9p.m., in the capital London. advertisements in metro and bus stops prohibited.In the Netherlands, the K3 biscuits and the Spongebob hagelslag disappearedfrom the shelves in 2019.