For a healthier diet, changes to recipes are also being considered so that foods that are bought often contain less fat, salt or sugar. In the case of children’s products, the balance sheet is critical.
Crunchy muesli, cola, lemonades: according to a study, despite some reductions, there is still a lot of sugar in many popular convenience products – especially in foods for children. Breakfast cereals for children contained an average of 17 grams of sugar per 100 grams, as the federal Max Rubner Institute announced today after an evaluation for 2022 – seen across the entire product group it was 14.7 grams.
Federal Food Minister Cem Özdemir confirmed his plans to ban advertising of unhealthy products to children. Consumer advocates demanded further legal requirements, the food industry warned against it.
Özdemir wants to stick to voluntary commitments
“Finished products for children and adults must be healthier,” said Özdemir in Berlin. Because if you eat a lot of it, you increase your risk of cardiovascular disease, diabetes or obesity. “It is up to the companies themselves to improve recipes,” warned the Greens politician. He made it clear that he wants to stick to the path of voluntary self-commitments on the part of providers. “It’s not God given how much sugar is in the lemonade.”
The background is a strategy launched by the previous federal government, according to which sectors commit themselves to reduction targets for sugar, fat and salt by 2025. The Rubner Institute carries out regular monitoring to check the commitments to changes in the ingredients. For the new evaluation, 7,000 products were scrutinized last autumn. Among them were those aimed at children – with colorful prints or toy extras in the pack.
On average 6 grams of sugar in soft drinks
Example soft drinks: Across the entire range of colas, sodas and mixed drinks, the sugar content was now an average of 6.0 grams per 100 milliliters – after 6.3 grams in the baseline survey in 2018. These are “no significant changes,” explained Institute President Pablo Steinberg . In the case of light lemonades, there was even an increase in sugar from 1.9 grams to 2.8 grams. In the case of sweetened drinks for children, the sugar cut fell from 7.2 grams in 2018 to 5.4 grams in 2019. But now it has risen again to 6.3 grams. Özdemir showed this with pieces of sugar in a glass: “You can go to the dentist right away Order it if you drink it regularly.”
Take breakfast cereals as an example: Steinberg explained that there was a significant reduction in sugar for the entire product group – on average from 18.4 grams in 2016 to 14.7 grams per 100 grams now. However, the average fat content increased from 9.2 to 10.9 grams per meal 100 grams. And breakfast products with a children’s look had an average of 3.3 grams more sugar per 100 grams of package content than the group as a whole. Children’s products also performed less well for other foods in earlier studies, as the ministry explained: muesli bars for children had the highest average fat content, pasta sauces for children the highest average sugar content among pasta sauces.
Advertising bans only at certain times
Özdemir therefore underpinned his legislative plans to limit the advertising of unhealthier products to children. “No one is saying it should be banned,” he said, referring to the production and consumption of such foods. If the industry reduces sugar, fat and salt, they can also advertise normally. In general, it is a question of justice that all children can grow up healthy, even if some of the parents are not so well informed. Özdemir has already watered down his plans after objections from the co-governing FDP. Advertising bans should be concentrated on times when a particularly large number of children watch television – for example on weekdays from 5 p.m. to 10 p.m. It was originally scheduled to run from 6:00 a.m. to 11:00 p.m.
The data also fueled the debate about more brakes for sugar, fat and salt. The German Food Association promoted the voluntary commitments and highlighted “in some cases considerable success” in changing ingredients. In this way, consumers would gradually be taken along without any loss of taste, and manufacturers would continue to have sovereignty over their products. The consumer organization Foodwatch, however, complained: “The principle of voluntariness has failed across the board.” Legal measures are now urgently needed – in addition to “junk food advertising barriers” also a soda tax for heavily sugared drinks. Özdemir does not see a majority in the coalition for this.
Source: Stern
