The Effects of the Food and Marketing Industries on Population Health and Health Inequalities

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The Effects of the Food and Marketing Industries
on Population Health and Health Inequalities

• Research Workshop
• Department of Public Health, University of Otago

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Workshop Presentations

• Mark Lawrence (Senior Lecturer, Public Health
  Nutrition, Deakin University)
• Penny Field (Senior Lecturer, Department of
  Human Nutrition, University of Otago)
• David Stuart (Education Researcher)
• Rose Richards (Social and Behavioural Research
  in Helen Darling Cancer Group, University of
  Otago)
• Janet Hoek (Massey University)
• Nick Wilson (Department of Public Health,
  Wellington School of George Thomson Medicine,
  University of Otago)
• Tim McCreanor (SHORE, Massey University)
• Robert Quigley (Quigley and Watts, on behalf of
  the Agencies for Nutrition Action Scientific
  Committee)

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Recommendations for future research

• How does marketing impact on childrens eating
  patterns and food preferences?

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The food industry in schoolsa complex influence

• The NZ food industry is the leading provider of
  sponsored educational materials (SEM) in schools
• Most of the resources used in the health and
  physical education curriculum are sponsored
• Bias is common in food industry SEM
• The borders between advertising, entertainment
  and education are being collapsed
• David Stuart (Education Researcher)

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Products sold by secondary schools for fundraising

• Helen Darling, Rose Richards, Tony Reeder (Social
  and Behavioural Research in Cancer Group,
  University of Otago)

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• Understanding how children incorporate food
  advertising/fundraising into their thinking and
  behaviour about food?
• What impact do marketing practices other than
  advertising have on childrens food preferences
  and behaviour?
• Do parents understand the impact that fundraising
  has on how children view food?
• What determines brand loyalty
• Need for more resources to help children
  understand the intent of marketing
  acknowledging that being media savvy does not
  necessarily provide protection

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• Evaluation of current food industry initiatives

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Food advertising and children an academic
perspective on advertisers real agenda

• Current situation from the Food Industry
  Accord Annual Status Report to the Minister of
  Health, 2005
• GOOD
• Examples of portion size reduction, product
  reformulation and more detailed nutrition
  labelling
• MEANINGLESS
• Social marketing efforts, Coca Cola nutrition and
  activity brochure, Willie Munchright campaign,
  ASA Review of Codes of Advertising to Children
  and Advertising of Food

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• BAD
• Sport and other sponsorships by food brands
  (often linked to high fat/sugar foods), often
  directed at children, no real restraint being
  exercised on advertising and promotion, wide
  range of promotional
• techniques to strengthen access
• to youth market

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• UGLY
• Attempts to stifle opposing views
• We would appreciate any influence you can bring
  to bear to encourage groups, like ANA and OAC to
  engage effectively with the Food Industry Group
• We are looking for reassurance that you
  encourage a multi pronged approach involving the
  not-for-profit sector. We are particularly
  concerned that the Government funded OAC is not
  reflecting the Governments policy of working in
  partnership to achieve the goal of HEHA
• Janet Hoek (Professor, Department of Marketing,
• Massey University)

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Evaluation of current food industry initiatives
priority areas for research..

• The impact of current food industry resources in
  schools
• Analysis of the drivers for food industry to
  focus on low SES communities
• Investigation of geographical clustering of food
  outlets selling and marketing unhealthy choices
  with SES of communities (use of GIS)
• We need research involving a range of disciplines
  including legal and economic experts to look at
  the impact of the food industry on health

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• We need to understand more about the activities
  of the food industry in schools what is the
  impact on learning and teaching?
• How are schools being positioned do schools
  have a full understanding of the impact of their
  participation in FI activities?
• What is really happening (before and after
  studies) to the Advertising Standards Authority
  review of Advertising of Food and Advertising to
  Children Codes and changes made by businesses
  under banner of social responsibility?

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• Policy and politics
• Advocacy

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Evidence, food and nutrition policy what is the
relationship?

• Is evidence-based policy an oxymoron?
• Evidence rarely speaks for itself, the process of
  policy making is not straight forward, policy is
  often evidence-informed rather than
  evidence-based
• Why do we do so much research is so little of it
  is used?
• Case study of food advertising to children
  -evidence base from WHO, Europe, UK, USA,
  Australia and NZ
• International policy responses industry self
  regulation, government regulation, investigate
  policy options (HEHA)
• What determines policy??
• Penny Field (Senior Lecturer, Department of
  Human Nutrition, University of Otago)

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Policy/Politics

• Analysis of why the precautionary approach is not
  favoured when considering options for nutrition
  health promotion.
• Investigate the politics of why policy is not
  being implemented.
• What are the predictors to research actually
  being used to inform policy development?
• What would schools do without income from
  fundraising?
• How do ideology and language affect the way the
  food industry impacts on health?
• What are the access and leverage points in the
  political process for the obesity issue? Need to
  start by mapping the institutions and agencies
  currently involved.

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Advocacy

• How do effective advocacy alliances get built?
• How can we build a critical mass of advocates
  connection between disciplines with champions?
• We need research on levels of public support for
  differing policy/regulatory solutions to the
  obesity epidemic
• We should not reinvent the wheel check out
  advocacy websites such as
• Centre for Science in the Public Interest (CSPI)
  http//www.cspinet.org,
• Campaign for Commercial Free Childhood
  http//www.commercialfreechildhood.org/
• Sustain the alliance for better food and farming
  (includes Campaign for the Children's Food Bill)
  http//www.sustainweb.org/

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• Ethical Issues

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NZ Dietetic Association only helping out a member
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Ethical Issues

• Need research on ethics and politics of
  association (between Govt/NGO/Academics and
  Industry)
• Need to map the associations between industry and
  Govt/NGO/Academics
• What is the impact of the associations?
• Can we apply an ethical framework to advertising
  to children?
• What ethical frameworks do different parts of the
  food industry use?

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• Evidence base of intervention that work we need
  to increase our understanding by promoting more
  research

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Evaluation base of interventions that work

• Evaluation of new initiatives
• What influences food choice (cost, positioning,
  discounting healthy options, taxes)
• The optimum mix of components for behaviour
  change (labelling, education, claims)
• Solutions about what does work as well as
  critique of what does not work
• Schools that have used alternative methods of
  education other than food industry sponsored
  educational materials (SEM)
• Cost effectiveness

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• Monitoring of changes in the food supply

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The food regulatory system analysing its
impact on food composition and food claims

• Food regulatory system has an enormous influence
  on the composition and the marketing of food and
  therefore on what we eat
• The food and marketing industries have a powerful
  influence on the food regulatory system
• Food regulatory system is political issues of
  transparency, selection of advisors,
  differential consultation, definition of public
  health and safety
• Mark Lawrence (Senior Lecturer, Centre for
  Physical
• Activity and Nutrition Research, Deakin
  University)

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Monitoring changes in food composition and the
food supply

• Need for more research on the impact of the food
  industry on the food supply
• We need to determine methods for tracking changes
  in manufactured foods so that we can monitor what
  the trends are in composition of manufactured
  foods over time. What do new product lines do to
  cost and relative contribution of products to the
  food supply?
• The Otago Food Cost Survey should be explored as
  a potential mechanism for monitoring change in a
  typical diet over time

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• We need a strategic approach for monitoring
  changes in the food composition of the food
  supply over time? Could the FAO food balance
  sheets offer any relevant information?
• What impact is the food regulatory system having
  on the food supply?
• Can we identify core healthy foods what should
  we be promoting?

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Other areas of nutrition research

• We need to view nutritional status more broadly
  than simply as the outcome of obesity. Other
  nutritional problems exist in New Zealand,
  including food insecurity they often co-exist
  with obesity
• Research into breastfeeding and infant nutrition
  is required especially qualitative research
• We need to better understand the impacts of food
  insecurity in Maori, Pacific and Asian
  communities
• We need more in depth analysis of what foods are
  contributing the most to energy intake, eg, types
  of takeaways

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Where to from here?

• Priorities for research include evaluation of
  interventions to identify what works, children,
  inequalities in health, monitoring the food
  supply, global collaboration in research on the
  food and marketing industries
• Use the results of this workshop as the basis for
  a submission to the Select Committee Inquiry on
  Obesity and Diabetes
• Advocate for the development of a research
  strategy to support HEHA (preferably led by the
  Ministry of Health/HRC)