IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/gam/jijerp/v17y2020i4p1250-d320976.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Evaluating the Canadian Packaged Food Supply Using Health Canada’s Proposed Nutrient Criteria for Restricting Food and Beverage Marketing to Children

Author

Listed:
  • Christine Mulligan

    (Department of Nutritional Sciences, Faculty of Medicine, University of Toronto, Toronto, ON M5S 1A8, Canada)

  • Anthea K. Christoforou

    (Department of Nutritional Sciences, Faculty of Medicine, University of Toronto, Toronto, ON M5S 1A8, Canada)

  • Laura Vergeer

    (Department of Nutritional Sciences, Faculty of Medicine, University of Toronto, Toronto, ON M5S 1A8, Canada)

  • Jodi T. Bernstein

    (Department of Nutritional Sciences, Faculty of Medicine, University of Toronto, Toronto, ON M5S 1A8, Canada)

  • Mary R. L’Abbé

    (Department of Nutritional Sciences, Faculty of Medicine, University of Toronto, Toronto, ON M5S 1A8, Canada)

Abstract

Federally mandated restrictions on food and beverage marketing to kids (M2K) have been re-introduced as a national public health priority in Canada by the newly elected government, following the failure to implement a similar policy first proposed in 2016. This study examined the extent to which Canadian packaged foods, including products already displaying M2K on the packaging, would be permitted to be marketed, based on the nutrient criteria for marketing restrictions defined by Health Canada (in December 2018) as part of the previous policy proposal. Products from the University of Toronto Food Label Information Program 2013 database (n = 15,200) were evaluated using Health Canada’s published criteria: thresholds for sodium, sugars and saturated fats that products cannot exceed in order to be M2K. The proportion of products exceeding no thresholds (i.e., permitted to be M2K), the number of thresholds exceeded, and the proportion exceeding each individual threshold were calculated overall and in the subsample of products displaying M2K on the packaging (n = 747). Overall, 18.0% of products would be permitted to be M2K, versus 2.7% of products displaying M2K. Sodium was the most exceeded threshold overall (57.5% of products), whereas sugars was the most exceeded by products displaying M2K (80.1%). Only 4.7% of all products versus 10.4% of products displaying M2K exceeded all three thresholds. These results highlight the importance of reintroducing federal regulations restricting M2K in Canada and including marketing on product packaging in the regulatory scope.

Suggested Citation

  • Christine Mulligan & Anthea K. Christoforou & Laura Vergeer & Jodi T. Bernstein & Mary R. L’Abbé, 2020. "Evaluating the Canadian Packaged Food Supply Using Health Canada’s Proposed Nutrient Criteria for Restricting Food and Beverage Marketing to Children," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 17(4), pages 1-17, February.
    • Handle: RePEc:gam:jijerp:v:17:y:2020:i:4:p:1250-:d:320976
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/17/4/1250/pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/17/4/1250/
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Charlene Elliott & Natalie V. Scime, 2019. "Nutrient Profiling and Child-Targeted Supermarket Foods: Assessing a “Made in Canada” Policy Approach," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 16(4), pages 1-12, February.
    2. Fernanda Mediano Stoltze & Marcela Reyes & Taillie Lindsey Smith & Teresa Correa & Camila Corvalán & Francesca R. Dillman Carpentier, 2019. "Prevalence of Child-Directed Marketing on Breakfast Cereal Packages before and after Chile’s Food Marketing Law: A Pre- and Post-Quantitative Content Analysis," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 16(22), pages 1-15, November.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Potvin Kent, Monique & Mulligan, Christine & Pauzé, Elise & Pinto, Adena & Remedios, Lauren, 2024. "The food and beverage marketing monitoring framework for Canada: Development, implementation, and gaps," Food Policy, Elsevier, vol. 122(C).

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Christine Mulligan & Monique Potvin Kent & Laura Vergeer & Anthea K. Christoforou & Mary R. L’Abbé, 2021. "Quantifying Child-Appeal: The Development and Mixed-Methods Validation of a Methodology for Evaluating Child-Appealing Marketing on Product Packaging," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 18(9), pages 1-23, April.
    2. Sofía Rincón-Gallardo Patiño & Fabio Da Silva Gomes & Steven Constantinou & Robin Lemaire & Valisa E. Hedrick & Elena L. Serrano & Vivica I. Kraak, 2021. "An Assessment of Government Capacity Building to Restrict the Marketing of Unhealthy Food and Non-Alcoholic Beverage Products to Children in the Region of the Americas," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 18(16), pages 1-17, August.
    3. Marissa G. Hall & Isabella C. A. Higgins & Anna H. Grummon & Allison J. Lazard & Carmen E. Prestemon & Jennifer Mendel Sheldon & Lindsey Smith Taillie, 2021. "Using a Naturalistic Store Laboratory for Clinical Trials of Point-of-Sale Nutrition Policies and Interventions: A Feasibility and Validation Study," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 18(16), pages 1-12, August.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:gam:jijerp:v:17:y:2020:i:4:p:1250-:d:320976. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: MDPI Indexing Manager (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.mdpi.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.