CFBAI Statement on ‘Food industry self-regulation after 10 years’ (Rudd Center 2017)

CFBAI Statement on the Rudd Center for Food Policy and Obesity

We are pleased that the Rudd Center report “Food industry self-regulation after 10 years” noted measurable improvements in food advertising directed to children since the launch of the Children’s Food and Beverage Advertising Initiative in 2007. CFBAI and its participants share the Rudd Center’s goal of improving the children’s food advertising landscape. That is why CFBAI participants have voluntarily committed to limit their food advertising to children under age 12 to foods that meet strong nutrition criteria, or to not advertise to this age group at all. The Rudd Center and other groups have noted several times that CFBAI participants have kept their promises, as have the confectionery companies that have joined the Children’s Confection Advertising Initiative (CCAI).

Using CFBAI’s uniform nutrition criteria -- which place limits on calories, sodium, saturated fats, and total sugar, and set requirements for food groups like whole grains, dairy, fruit and vegetables and essential nutrients such as calcium and Vitamin D – participants have measurably improved the foods they advertise to children.

Since CFBAI began, there have not only been improvements in the foods advertised but also in the number of foods ads that children see. As Rudd points out, there has been a dramatic reduction in food ads viewed by children, not only on children’s networks (a 45% decline) but also on non-children’s networks (~20% decline in the number of CFBAI participants’ ads viewed by children).

The Rudd Center has issued multiple reports in the past and will continue to issue reports that use various standards to evaluate the foods advertised to children, look at the advertising data from different angles, recommend that CFBAI and its participants make further commitments, and urge other companies to participate. We welcome other food and restaurant companies to join us as we continue to focus on driving improvements in the food advertising landscape.

Revised January 12, 2018