In the previous legislature, the then Minister of Consumer Affairs, Alberto Garzón, fought hard to stop children’s access to unhealthy food. How? Regulating advertising, the channel that creates desires. And it was through a legal text that he explained with the approval of the organizations that defend childhood, as well as a large part of the medical and scientific societies. Even the World Health Organization (WHO) has come out in favor of limiting unhealthy food advertising. But the text remained in a drawer because the Ministry of Agriculture did not want to give it the go-ahead. He let him sleep waiting for another occasion.
And the occasion is presented again this legislature, in charge of the Minister of Social Rights, who also has the area of ??Consumption. Pablo Bustinduy collects Garzón’s testimony and has already announced that he is recovering the text from the previous team. And he plans to fight for him. It is in the Government agreement signed between the PSOE and Sumar, they remember from this formation.
What will this rule regulate? If the current wording is maintained, the regulations will affect five categories of products that will not be able to advertise to minors regardless of nutrient content. According to the draft royal decree, they are all chocolate and sugar confectionery, energy bars, cakes and biscuits, as well as energy drinks and ice creams. These will be radically prohibited.
As for the rest of the product categories, a nutrient content limit is established for every 100 grams. In this case, they may be advertised as long as total and saturated fat, total and added sugar and salt levels remain below the limits established for each product.
In addition, it establishes the prohibition that in commercial communications about these foods and drinks appear “mothers or fathers, educators, teachers, professionals of children’s programs, athletes, artists, influencers, people or characters of relevance, public notoriety or proximity to the public children, both real and fictional, that due to their history are likely to set an example for minors”.
In this sense, the regulatory project defines the term influencer as that person with a high degree of influence on the children and youth audience due to “the high level of followers”, without establishing a specific range of the number of followers.
The rule also provides for restrictions on the way in which the advertising of these foods and drinks can be shown on the internet. In particular, it establishes that the appearance on video sharing services through social networks with a user profile will be allowed if the platform or network has effective mechanisms to prevent communications from being directed at children.
