Strengthening Global Legislative Actions to Protect Children from the Harmful Impacts of Unhealthy Food and Non-alcoholic Beverage Marketing

PURPOSE OF REVIEW: Drawing on current global food marketing policies and the academic literature, we illustrate why and how existing legislative approaches can be strengthened to better achieve the goal of protecting children from the harmful impacts of unhealthy food and non-alcoholic beverage marketing. RECENT FINDINGS: Around the world, governments are starting to implement legislative actions to protect children from exposure to unhealthy food and non-alcoholic beverage marketing. However, the scope of these approaches is limited and unlikely to meet their objective of safeguarding children from harmful marketing practices. The key opportunities for strengthening legislative design include increasing the age threshold of a child to 18 years; the broadening of focus from ‘child-directed’ marketing to all marketing that children are exposed to; designing tailored regulations for multiple settings, media and techniques; strengthening underlying food classification systems; balancing a comprehensive approach with stepwise regulatory implementation; and strengthening monitoring and enforcement systems. SUMMARY: Our review and recommendations can aid policymakers when designing legislative approaches to protect children from the harmful impacts of unhealthy food and non-alcoholic beverage marketing.