RPC Reg Spotlight June 14, 2011

 

UPDATE:

 

On June 23, the Committee on Appropriations approved the Fiscal Year 2012 Financial Services Appropriations bill which will block funds for the FTC to complete this draft report unless they go back and complete the initial study. This legislation should come to the floor in July.

 

Regulatory Action in the Spotlight:

 

Interagency Working Group on Food Marketed to Children

 

Adverse Effects:

 

  • Forces “voluntary” cooperation by food, beverage and restaurant industries.
  • Reformulation or elimination of foods and suppression of advertising.
  • Ignores industry self-regulation program to limit child-directed advertising.

 

 

Response of the Obama Administration:

 

To combat childhood obesity, the 2009 Omnibus Appropriations Act (H.R. 1105) included a provision requesting that the Federal Trade Commission (FTC), Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), and the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) conduct a study of food marketed to children and teens and to produce recommendations to Congress.   Instead of completing such a study and recommendations, the Interagency Working Group on Food Marketed to Children (IWG) has proposed sweeping food marketing restrictions under the guise of adraft proposal for voluntary principles.   The Preliminary Proposed Nutrition Principles to Guide Industry Self-Regulatory Efforts was released for comments on April 28, 2011, and has the potential to dramatically reshape and restrict food recipes and marketing to adults as well as children.   The IWG suggests these changes occur by 2016.

 

 

Impact on the United States:

 

In spite of being called “voluntary,” the federal government is clearly trying to exert pressure on the food, beverage, and restaurant industries regarding the ingredients in their products, and what can be sold and marketed to children.  Because of very specific limitations on nutrients such as sodium and trans fat, many products, including yogurt, cheeses, breads and cereals, would either have to be reformulated to meet the voluntary guidelines, at a cost to the manufacturer and eventually the consumer, or would be prohibited from being marketed to children.  This in turn could result in the prohibition of the use of such ubiquitousicons as Tony the Tiger and Ronald McDonald.  Santa Claus and Valentine’s Hearts could also be banned for seasonal advertising displays.  Broad sponsorship definitions would prevent traditional support of community events and athletic teams.

 

The IWG ignores the significant progress made as a result of a self-regulatory program created at the urging of the FTC.  The Children’s Food and Beverage Advertising Initiative (CFBAI) was launched in 2006 by the Council of Better Business Bureaus and a number of leading food and beverage companies.  Its goal is to shift “the mix of child-directed advertising messaging to include advertising for healthier or better-for-you foods and/or healthy lifestyle messaging at least half the time.” 

 

 

In Closing:

 

 The IWG’s voluntary principles has such broad proposed definitions of “Marketing” and “Advertising”  that it would mean the vast majority of processed and restaurant foods could not be marketed to children and possibly adults.  By using “voluntary” principles to circumvent the legislative or regulatory processes, certain protections, such as a cost-benefit analysis and providing empirical evidence that the proposed action would reduce childhood obesity, are forfeited.  Furthermore, the IWG chose to ignore the significant voluntary progress made by the industry via CFBAI guidelines.

 

 

Relevant Action:

 

On May 24, 2011, the IWG held a public forum to solicit public comment on the proposed voluntary principles for food marketed to children.  Testifying on behalf of the Association of National Advertisers, Dan Jaffe voiced his concern, “(I)f the stringent marketing and advertising proposals were, quote,voluntarily accepted by the food, beverage, restaurant and media communities, the cost would be multi-billions of dollars in non-market-driven reformulations and the suppression of virtually unprecedented amounts of advertising to those 17-year-old or younger.”  Scott Faber of the Grocery Manufacturers Association testified, “(T)he IWG has proposed dramatic changes to food recipes and marketing without providing evidence that such extraordinary changes will help build healthy diets and without any assessment of benefits and costs.”  Both speakers urged the IWG to withdraw the proposed principles and complete the study originally required by Congress.