Feeding our Future: Regulating Unhealthy Food Marketing to Children

Marketing unhealthy foods to children has been strongly implicated in the rising levels of childhood obesity worldwide.

ATNi’s latest Global Index 2024 found that while the practices of the largest food and beverages companies are improving in terms of marketing to children, none of the 30 companies fully comply with World Health Organization (WHO) guidelines on the marketing of (unhealthy) foods to children. To date, companies have largely supported voluntary industry measures; however, children continue to be exposed to aggressive marketing of foods high in fats, sugars, and salt — negatively impacting their dietary choices and setting them up for a lifetime of unhealthy eating.

Join us for a webinar to discuss this urgent topic with leading experts, who will share their research, experiences, and suggestions on what types of policies are needed, the critical barriers to implementing these policies, and what steps must be taken to protect children from harmful marketing practices.

Speakers

• Amandine Garde (PhD),Professor of Law at the University of Liverpool in the UK and a qualified solicitor. Her expertise lies at the crossroads of consumer protection, public health, and trade law and policy, focusing on the role which regulation and litigation can play in improving public health and the wellbeing of children as a group of particularly vulnerable consumers. In 2015, she established the Law & Non-Communicable Diseases Research Unit, which advises international organizations, civil society, public health agencies and governments worldwide on the effective regulation of the food, alcohol and tobacco industries to promote better health for all.

• Yolanda Radu, Senior Researcher at the SAMRC Centre for Health Economics and Decision Science (PRICELESS SA). She has an LLM in International Law and Development and an LLB from Wits University and has over 10 years of experience in mainstreaming human rights principles and standards into development policy and programming. Prior to joining PRICELESS SA, she worked in the UN, the NGO and public sectors where she was involved in the development and implementation of policies, legislation, and programmes necessary to address poverty, vulnerability, exclusion and inequality.

• Merel Zeilstra, Public Affairs Advisor for the Dutch Heart Foundation. She collaborates with other Dutch health foundations and works on the Dutch government’s “Healthy Generation in 2040” policy. Merel focuses on disease prevention advocacy and specializes in policies that promote healthier food consumption.

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