At just one of thousands of events taking place across the country today, Prevention Institute’s Juliet Sims spoke this morning on the steps of San Francisco’s City Hall, highlighting the growing momentum for healthy and equitable food systems. She spoke in celebration of the first annual Food Day, a national day of attention and action in support of a healthy, sustainable, and equitable food system.
Juliet called today a day to celebrate—but also a time to make sure that we continue to press for food practices and policies that have our kids’ health at heart. She’s right. Last week, the Institute of Medicine issued a report calling for stronger, clearer labels on front-of-package labeling on foods marketed to kids as healthier. This recommendation backs the findings of Prevention Institute ‘s 2011 study Claiming Health: Front-of-Package Labeling of Children’s Food. Claiming Health examined the nutrition content of fifty-eight ‘better-for-you’ children’s foods with FOP labels, and found that 84 percent failed to meet one or more nutrient criteria for fat, saturated fat, sugar, sodium, or fiber. At the same time, food manufacturers claim that twelve year olds do not need to be protected from advertising.
Claiming Health, and our video "We’re Not Buying It," released earlier this month, highlight the deceptive ways that food and beverage companies target kids—and parents—with unhealthy foods. The food and beverage industry has been fighting sound federal efforts to limit deceptive food marketing. But we're not buying it: we know that honest front of package labeling is critical for the health of our kids.
The food industry can—and should—do better.
Celebrate Food Day with us by helping to curb junk food marketing to kids and supporting voluntary guidelines for foods marketed to children. Watch and share “We’re Not Buying It.” Then, sign our petition asking President Obama to support federal guidelines that would provide voluntary standards for food marketing to kids.