Lidl changes advertising for children's food - and is praised by experts

Created: 01/11/2023 05:38

By: Patrick Huljina

Lidl has announced that it will stop advertising unhealthy baby food from March.

Experts praise the discounter for it.

Bad Wimpfen - Food for children is a billion dollar business.

The list of products is long: from children's pudding to yoghurt with chocolate beans, from breakfast cocoa to sugar-sweet drinks for school breaks.

What many children like causes severe criticism from health experts.

They criticize the content of the often elaborately advertised products and complain about too much sugar, too much fat and too much salt.

Experts have therefore been calling for a rethink from trade and industry for years.

The discounter Lidl is now drawing its first conclusions.

Lidl no longer wants to advertise unhealthy baby food

The company announced on Tuesday (January 10) that from the coming financial year, which begins on March 1 at Lidl, it would no longer advertise unhealthy foods such as sugar-sweetened yoghurts or drinks, but also chocolate, aimed at children.

There should only be exceptions for promotional items for Christmas, Easter or Halloween - for example for chocolate Santa Clauses or Easter bunnies.

"Lidl is the first German food retailer to implement a corresponding recommendation from the World Health Organization (WHO)," said the discounter.

By the end of 2025, Lidl also only wants to sell food in packaging that is attractive to children and that meets the WHO criteria for healthy food.

The packaging would be changed step by step.

"Since malnutrition in childhood increases the risk of nutrition-related diseases in adulthood, promoting healthy foods and not advertising unhealthy foods up to the age of 14 is central to health," the company writes in a presentation.

Experts praise Lidl: "Important, but also long overdue step"

Lidl goes "significantly beyond the self-commitments of other manufacturers and retailers", praised the German Alliance for Non-Communicable Diseases.

The consumer organization Foodwatch called on the discounter's competitors – including Aldi, Rewe and Edeka – to follow suit.

"In view of rampant malnutrition among young people, with sometimes fatal consequences, this is an important step, but one that is long overdue," said Luise Molling from Foodwatch.

Lidl wants to pay more attention to children's health in its advertising in the future.

(Iconic image) © Matthias Balk

A 2021 study by Foodwatch of 283 food products from leading brand manufacturers found that 85.5 percent of products advertised specifically for children contained too much sugar, fat and/or salt by WHO standards.

According to scientific studies, around 15 percent of children and adolescents in Germany are currently overweight and six percent are even severely overweight (adiposity).

This can lead to diseases such as type 2 diabetes, joint problems, high blood pressure and heart disease later in life.

Junk food advertising ban for children demanded – federal government has topic on the agenda

For large parts of the population, stricter rules for unhealthy children's products would probably break open doors.

In a survey by the Federal Association of Consumer Advice Centers, 83 percent of consumers approved of upper limits for sugar, fat and salt in foods that are designed and presented for children.

also read

Exemption from the GEZ: when pensioners do not have to pay broadcasting fees

TO READ

Poor people photographed Rewe snack shelf: "I left the car, won't buy here anymore"

TO READ

Which trees and shrubs you should definitely cut back in January

TO READ

Child benefit payments in 2023: when it ends up in the account

TO READ

Next German shoe retailer insolvent - operation of the ten branches for the time being "continued without restrictions"

TO READ

Fancy a voyage of discovery?

My space

The German government has now put the issue on the agenda.

The coalition agreement of the traffic light coalition states in the chapter on nutrition: "Advertising to children for food with a high sugar, fat and salt content may no longer exist in programs and formats for under 14-year-olds." The consumer protection ministers of the federal states and Foodwatch have already called for a junk food advertising ban for children by 2022.

In Spain, action was already taken in 2021.