Source: ET
Context:
Unicef released its report “Feeding Profit: How Food Environments Are Failing Children”, highlighting the role of the ultra-processed food (UPF) and beverage industry in worsening childhood obesity and unhealthy diets.
Key Highlights of the Report:
- Industry Influence
- UPF industry has disproportionate control over children’s food environments.
- Uses financial resources, lobbying, and marketing to resist healthier food policies.
- Targets schools and communities where regulation is weak.
- Rising Childhood Obesity
- Low and middle-income countries face the steepest rise in overweight children.
- UPFs are cheap, widely available, and aggressively marketed in homes, schools, and retail markets.
- Case Studies
- In Tanzania & Zimbabwe, UPF companies entered schools via public-private partnerships.
- Built brand loyalty among children and improved corporate image at the cost of health.
- Global Trends
- Overweight vs. Underweight (2000 vs. 2022):
- 2000: 13% underweight vs. 11% overweight.
- 2022: 10% underweight vs. 20% overweight.
- Being overweight has overtaken underweight as the dominant form of malnutrition in children aged 5–19.
- Overweight vs. Underweight (2000 vs. 2022):
Recommendations by UNICEF
- Robust Safeguards: Protect policy-making from UPF industry interference.
- Conflict-of-Interest Measures: Prevent industry actors from influencing health and nutrition policies.
- Limit Availability & Marketing: Restrict UPFs in schools and children’s environments.
- Promote Healthy Food Environments: Ensure affordable and accessible nutritious foods.
