At the annual meeting of the European Confectionery and Biscuit Association (CAOBISCO) held in Brussels a few days ago, representatives of Candy Manufacturers such as Mars, Ferrero, Yizi, Nestle and the European Commission discussed the role of the confectionery industry in health issues. The European Consumer Organization (BEUC) said that for confectionery enterprises, what consumers want most is to restrict the children's market.
Start from curbing obesity
According to the data of the World Health Organization, 1/3 of children in Europe are overweight or obese, and their intake of sugar, salt and saturated fatty acids is far higher than the dietary recommendations. In other regions, this issue cannot be ignored and must be paid attention to.
Put restrictions on advertising
According to the data of the American Psychological Association, children choose unhealthy food under the influence of TV advertisements, which is a very key factor causing obesity.
The data shows that children who watch more TV every day consume more total calories, as well as fast food and sugary drinks.
Therefore, BEUC requires confectionery food and beverage manufacturers to reduce the addition of sugar, salt and saturated fatty acids, and increase the intake of fruits and vegetables, nuts, and healthy protein. For candy manufacturers, the first thing to do is to reduce the market.
In 2010, CAOBISCO recommended that member enterprises should join the European Union's declaration, requiring that advertising should be banned for children under 12 years of age. Mars, Ferrero, Yizi and Nestle all announced their compliance with the Declaration.
Declaration of accession to the European Union
The EU declaration has certain limitations. Today's children still receive a lot of information to urge them to choose unhealthy foods, such as candy, biscuits and other snacks with cartoon characters printed on the package.
The advertisements of EU declaration member enterprises account for 80% of the EU food and beverage industry. Pauline Castres, the food policy officer of BEUC, said that candy manufacturers should reflect on health issues, and government departments should also play a role in setting goals.
At present, food enterprises have voluntarily joined the EU Declaration, and various food enterprises have made improvement policies for the children's market.
Tighter regulations are coming soon
The British Advertising Commission (CAP) is currently introducing a policy to completely ban the advertising of high-fat, high-salt and high-sugar foods (HFSS), which is an extension of the current requirements for non-broadcast media, such as online platforms.
Although many member enterprises have restructured their products, the adjustment of packaging size is still the first choice of many large companies.
Control package weight
Castres very much agreed with the request of CAOBISCO to reduce the packaging size of candy products, but also pointed out that the price of small packaged food should also be appropriately reduced to make consumers affordable
In addition, Castres believes that the size of each serving marked on the trademark should truly reflect how much consumers really eat.
The amount of sugar added will be indicated
BEUC said to the EU's legislation on "food information provided to consumers (FIC)", which means that from December 13, 2016, food enterprises will have the obligation to provide product nutrition information.
Such labels will not become a big problem for candy enterprises, and consumers will not be shocked by the sugar in chocolate. Relatively speaking, it may have more impact on other categories. For example, consumers are usually surprised when they see a lot of sugar in the milk cocktail breakfast that they think is very healthy, or when they see a lot of sugar in the healthy cereal bar.
In the United States, Mars Chocolate supports the label of added sugar. The National Candy Association also said that the nutrition table of the product needs to be further changed.
BEUC supports the launch of the traffic light signal label system in the EU. Castres said that the traffic light signal label will not only aim at obesity, but will help consumers identify the high level of sugar and saturated fatty acid content in products that claim to be very healthy.