Advertising ban of unhealthy foods to kids does 'not go far enough'

Irish Heart Foundation has said that commercial interests have been put before the health of Irish children in the revised code from the Broadcasting Authority of Ireland (BAI).

The foundation has expressed "major concern and disappointment" that the BAI's recent ban on advertising of unhealthy food to children does not ban the advertising of foods such as French fries, crisps, confectionary, biscuits and sugary sweetened drinks until 9pm.

Maureen Mulvihill, Head of Health Promotion, Irish Heart Foundation said: "At the Irish Heart Foundation we are extremely disappointed that the BAI decision has put commercial interests ahead of the health of our children by failing to enforce a ban on advertising of unhealthy foods to children until 9pm.

"Ireland had an opportunity to learn from the UK example which did not go far enough with a ban until 7pm and in fact, a recent study from the University of Newcastle showed that UK children see as many ads for foods high in fat, sugar and salt HFSS foods now as before the restrictions were introduced because many of these commercial communications were simply moved to adult programming watched by children."

The charity said that the latest ban until 6pm excludes prime time viewing, when on average the most popular time for children (4 to 17 year olds) to watch television is between the hours of 6pm and 9pm and over half of Irish children watch adult programmes without parental supervision.

According to the charity, the diet and health of Irish children continues to be a major public health concern.

They said that scientific evidence shows that television advertising of foods high in fat, sugar and salt is linked to poor food choices and poor diets in children and in turn to overweight and obesity.

Ms Mulvihill added: “The stark reality is that one in four primary school children and one in five Irish teenagers is overweight or obese. This escalating public health crisis which will eventually contribute to higher incidence of stroke and heart disease as well as other chronic diseases and premature deaths.

"Furthermore it will place an enormous financial burden on the health system in the future. Since 2005 at least 14,000 lives have been lost to obesity-related illness costing up to €4bn per year.”

"The 25% cap on advertising outside of children’s programming and the content rules is merely tokenistic, leaving large numbers of children still exposed to adverts for unhealthy foods."