Selling Food to Children

[SOURCE: New York Times, AUTHOR: Melanie Warner]
As major food producers face scrutiny over their role in contributing to increasing childhood obesity rates, they are under pressure to make fundamental shifts in the way they sell their products to American children. Entertainment companies are also feeling pressure. Walt Disney said that beginning in the next few months, it would remove characters like Winnie the Pooh, Mickey Mouse and Chicken Little from candy and food products it determined to be unhealthy for children. And in partnership with a major supermarket chain, which Disney would not identify, the company will put Mickey Mouse thumbs-up seals on items like bananas and on store-brand products like pasta and juices. None of these changes go as far as the Institute of Medicine, a leading scientific advisory group, urges. In a report last week, an institute committee of 16 nutrition and marketing experts called for sweeping changes in the way the food industry markets its products to children. It added that 80 percent to 97 percent of the food products now aimed at children and teenagers are of "poor nutritional quality."
http://www.nytimes.com/2005/12/16/business/16food.html
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