FTC to Host Forum on Food Marketing to Children

The Federal Trade Commission will host a public forum on December 15, 2009, titled "Sizing Up Food Marketing and Childhood Obesity." The forum will assemble industry representatives, federal regulators, consumer groups, scientific researchers, and legal scholars to discuss issues related to food marketing to children. The forum will address the food and entertainment industries' progress toward self-regulation and implementation of the recommendations in the FTC's 2008 report, "Marketing Foods to Children and Adolescents: A Review of Industry Expenditures, Activities, and Self-Regulation." Panelists also will discuss current research on the impact of food advertising on children, and the statutory and constitutional issues surrounding governmental regulation of food marketing. In addition, the Interagency Working Group on Food Marketed to Children - comprised of representatives from the FTC, U.S. Food and Drug Administration, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and U.S. Department of Agriculture - will report on the status of recommended nutritional standards for foods marketed to children.