Marketing of foods and non-alcoholic beverages to children
At the World Health Assembly in May 2007 the WHO Director-General was requested to develop a set of recommendations on the marketing of foods and non-alcoholic beverages to children, in order to reduce the impact of foods high in saturated fats, trans-fatty acids, free sugars, or salt […] (Resolution WHA60.23).
To support the WHO Secretariat in drafting the recommendations, an Ad-Hoc Expert Group on Marketing of Foods and Non-alcoholic Beverages to Children was appointed by the WHO Director-General. In addition, two dialogue meetings were held with relevant stakeholders: one with representatives of international nongovernmental organizations (20 November 2008) and one with representatives of the global food and non-alcoholic beverage industry and the global advertising industry (24 November 2008). These dialogue meetings enabled those groups to inform the Secretariat of relevant work being undertaken by them in the area of marketing of foods and non-alcoholic beverages to children. The World Heart Federation, along with other NGOs active in the field of healthy living promotion, participated to the NGOs meeting and is closely involved in the WHO consultation process.
Reports of the two dialogue meetings were presented by the Secretariat to the Ad-Hoc Expert Group which met at WHO Headquarters on 1-4 December 2008. The Ad-Hoc Expert Group submitted their report and recommendations to WHO in February 2009. The Secretariat is currently drafting a set of recommendations which will be available, along with the Ad-Hoc Expert Group report, via the WHO website upon request. The draft recommendations will form the basis of a consultation process with Member States and other stakeholders.
Regional consultations with Member States will be facilitated by the WHO regional offices between June and August 2009:
A systematic review of the evidence will be published on the WHO website. Regretfully there has been some delay in the process due to the recent Influenza A(H1N1) situation.
- The WHO Regional Office for Africa will conduct a written consultation - contact person: Chandrallal Sookram
- The WHO Regional Office for the Americas will conduct a consultation to be hosted in Brasilia, Brazil, on 18 June - contact person: Enrique Jacoby
- The WHO Regional Office for the Eastern Mediterranean will conduct a consultation in June/July (to be confirmed) - contact person: Faten Ben Abdelaziz
- The WHO Regional Office for Europe will conduct a written consultation - contact person: Trudy Wijnhoven
- The WHO Regional Office for South-East Asia will conduct a consultation to be hosted in India in mid-June - contact person: Jerzy Leowski;
- The WHO Regional Office for the Western Pacific will conduct a consultation in early August (to be confirmed) - contact person: Cherian Verghese
WHO headquarters will conduct a dialogue meeting with international nongovernmental organizations and the global food and non-alcoholic beverage industry and the global advertising industry on the draft recommendations during May-August 2009 (to be confirmed).
Following the consultations, the Secretariat will finalize the recommendations, which will be presented to the Executive Board in January 2010.