Recommendation 11

The Committee recommends that the Minister for Health and Ageing commission research into the effect of the advertising of food products with limited nutritional value on the eating behaviour of children and other vulnerable groups.

Agreed in principle.

Limiting children’s exposure to the marketing of unhealthy foods was a recommendation in the National Preventative Health Taskforce’s report Australia: The Healthiest Country by 2020. In response¹ to this report the Australian Government described current mandatory and voluntary initiatives designed to limit the impact of unhealthy food and beverage marketing. All food and beverage marketing is subject to Government regulation via the Australian Communication and Media Authority (ACMA) Children’s Television Standards (CTS). There are two voluntary industry initiatives which aim to reduce children’s exposure to unhealthy food: the Responsible Marketing to Children Initiative and the Australian Quick Service Restaurant Industry’s Initiative for Responsible Advertising and Marketing to Children both managed by the Australian Food and Grocery Council. The Australian Government undertook to monitor the impact of the industry initiatives to ensure their effectiveness in reducing children’s exposure to advertising of energy-dense, nutrient-poor foods and beverages.

Evidence provided by the South Australian Minister for Health at the August 2011 meeting of the Australian Health Ministers’ Conference (AHMC) indicated that the voluntary initiatives to reduce children’s exposure to television advertising of unhealthy food have not been successful. Following a discussion of this evidence, Australia’s Health Ministers agreed to ask the:

• Australian Health Ministers’ Advisory Council to work with the ANPHA and South Australia to organise a national seminar in 2012 of key stakeholders to discuss action on unhealthy food advertising;
• Australian National Preventive Health Agency (ANPHA) to review recent monitoring of food advertising, related evidence, relevant reports, and report back in 2012; and
• Food Regulation Standing Committee (FRSC) to provide advice by early 2012 on how best to develop an appropriate set of definitions and criteria for determining “unhealthy” – i.e.: energy-dense and nutrient-poor food and drink.

In response to the first action above, a national seminar on food marketing to children was hosted by SA Health and ANPHA in Adelaide on 9 May 2012. As a result of the seminar, a time-limited National Working Group on Food Marketing to Children (Working Group) was established and included representatives from industry, public health and government. With the objective of reducing children’s exposure to the advertising and marketing of unhealthy food, the Working Group agreed to explore a number of issues for potential further action to strengthen the self-regulatory initiatives. This process did not yield further commitments from either the advertising or the food industries to strengthen their codes and voluntary initiatives.

In response to the second action, ANPHA commissioned an independent contractor to undertake a review of the most recent monitoring research on children’s exposure to food and beverage marketing on television. The review concluded that there was a low amount of unhealthy food advertising during C (Children) and none in P (Pre-school) rated programs, consistent with the current self-regulatory initiatives but that advertising of unhealthy food and beverages remained high in programs with large numbers of children watching that are not covered by the self-regulatory initiatives.

In response to identified needs from the Working Group and the Government’s response to the Preventive Health Taskforce, ANPHA is drafting a monitoring framework that will enable interested parties to undertake consistent, robust measurement of children's exposure to unhealthy food marketing and advertising on television. ANPHA intends to conduct a public consultation early in 2013 and expects to release the framework as a guideline standard, under the Australian National Preventive Health Agency Act 2010.

In response to the third action requested by Health Ministers, SA Health and ANPHA have requested advice from FRSC regarding the best approach to develop criteria to define what an unhealthy food is in the context of advertising to children. However, due to the complexities of the issue and the work currently being undertaken around front-of-pack labelling and health claims, FRSC will provide further evidence to inform definitions and criteria for healthy and unhealthy foods once this work is completed.

The South Australian Government and ANPHA reported back to the Standing Council on Health (formerly AHMC) in November 2012. The Chair of the Legislative and Governance Forum on Food Regulation, (the Forum), the Hon Catherine King, has responded on behalf of FRSC to advise that FRSC’s advice will be provided to the Forum for consideration at its June 2013 meeting and that a response will be provided to the Standing Council on Health following that meeting.

1. Commonwealth of Australia (2010) Taking Preventative Action. A response to Australia: The healthiest country by 2020 - The report of the National Preventative Health Taskforce.