Nutrition criteria re foods advertised to children to be strengthened in the US

Eighteen US food, beverage and quick-serve-restaurant companies that participate in the USA’s Children’s Food and Beverage Advertising Initiative (CFBAI) have agreed to strengthen the Category-Specific Uniform Nutrition Criteria that apply to foods advertised to children.

Approximately 40 per cent of foods on CFBAI’s current Product List do not meet the Revised Criteria and will require reformulation if these foods are to continue to qualify for child-directed advertising after January 1, 2020. CFBAI has published a White Paper that explains the revisions and the basis for the Revised Criteria.

Says Maureen Enright, CFBAI Director. “Updated food categories are more transparent and have stricter requirements that better recognise the foods’ different dietary roles. CFBAI’s criteria now will have an added sugars criteria to align with FDA’s new Nutrition Facts Panel (NFP). Key categories have stricter sodium and added sugars standards, revised whole grain food requirements will help ensure foods contribute a meaningful amount of whole grains, and more food groups are required in the Main Dishes and Meals categories.”

Revised Criteria Highlights include new categories with more rigorous requirements. To align with the new NFP, CFBAI has adopted an ‘added sugars’ criteria. The new criteria replaces ‘total sugars’ used in the 2011 criteria. Key categories have stricter sodium and added sugars limits. CFBAI has reduced sodium limits in thirteen of the seventeen categories, and estimates that the new added sugar limits represent at least a 10 per cent reduction in key categories such as Milks, Cereals, Savoury Snacks, Sweet Snacks and Exempt Beverages.

CFBAI says the food group and positive nutrient requirements have been strengthened in important ways. The whole grain foods criteria has been revised to ensure foods contribute a meaningful amount of whole grains. More food groups are now required in the Main Dishes and Meals categories. Certain categories now may qualify if the first ingredient is a food group, a change that incentivises the inclusion of food groups in more foods. The nutrient-based qualification requirements are more rigorous, says the CFBAI, because they have been limited to nutrients that the DGA identify as ‘under-consumed,’ with an exception for one category.