Food ad guidelines cause backlash

Advertisers, broadcasters, grocers and food manufacturers are pushing back on a proposal that would set voluntary guidelines restricting what foods can be advertised on television.

Many cereals, energy drinks and even some milk would be banned from the airwaves under the administration’s suggested guidelines. Industry groups are strongly lobbying the administration to rescind them. In 2009, Congress directed the Food and Drug Administration, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Federal Trade Commission and Department of Agriculture to develop recommendations for the minimum nutrition levels foods should meet to be marketed to kids up to age 17. The group issued its recommendations in April and is now taking public comment. The restrictions are voluntary, but industry groups worry that they will one day become mandatory, or that the agencies will use the regulatory control they have over them in other areas — such as broadcasters’ licenses — to make them de facto mandates.