There are only a few days left until the traditional Christmas toasts resonate in every home. The reasons for putting the glasses together are varied: love, money, health… Not even the little ones in the house are exempt from performing this ritual. They are not allowed to toast with water (“it’s bad luck!”), but they are allowed with soft drinks and even non-alcoholic drinks very similar to sparkling wines, both in form and content. The latter are available in any supermarket during the holidays, so many add them to the cart so as not to leave the children out of the party. But is it a good idea for them to consume these products?
The food technologist and author of the blog Gominolas de Petróleo, Miguel Ángel Lurueña, explains that the sale of these champagnes for children is incoherent. “These products that imitate typical holiday alcohols and that have children’s characters on their labels, can encourage alcohol consumption at very early ages,” he explained to Comer. The expert is surprised that its sale is still allowed, especially when the drawings on its packaging are aimed at children aged 3-6 years.
Although it is true that they do not contain alcohol and that they integrate minors more into celebrations where champagne and cava have a great role, “some studies have observed that prohibiting advertising aimed at children in these products reduces the consumption of alcoholic beverages.” “says Lurueña. The same thing happens with unhealthy products aimed at children, whose packaging does not allow influencers or famous people to appear, but cartoons do. “This advertising aimed at children, so common, for example, in industrial pastries, encourages the consumption of these ultra-processed foods among minors.”
Today it would be unthinkable, but in the 80s it was common for Spanish children to be bought chocolate cigarettes. With them, the little ones could imitate adult smokers, inhaling and expelling imaginary smoke through an elongated candy that they could then bite into. In 2005 they were removed from the market with the approval of the Anti-Tobacco Law. “The sale of candy, snacks, toys and other objects that are shaped like tobacco products and may be attractive to minors is prohibited,” the rule says.
For Lurueña it makes no sense that these sweets were banned almost 20 years ago and that the same is not done with champagne for children. “I think they are comparable products, since both are harmful,” she insists. “We must convey that alcohol, although it is very normalized in our society, is harmful and that familiarizing minors with it is not a good idea.”
He is also concerned, like many other experts, that children’s vapes and electronic cigarettes are becoming popular, with flavors attractive to this age group, such as strawberry, melon or cheesecake. “They don’t have nicotine, but smoking becomes normal at a very early age. It’s a danger.”
The launch of children’s electronic cigarettes on the market is relatively recent, so the authorities have not yet developed regulations to regulate it.
In the case of non-alcoholic champagne aimed at children, its sale has only been banned in a few autonomous communities, such as Extremadura, where Law 5/2018 exists, published in the BOE in May of this year. Article 16 says the following: “The supply to minors of substances or products that imitate alcoholic beverage containers is prohibited.”
At the moment, there is no standard at the state level, but many experts like Lurueña consider it necessary. “It may seem like an exaggeration, because the consumption of these products is very residual and is concentrated at Christmas… But, although the intake of these drinks will not determine whether children drink sooner or more alcohol in the future, it can influence,” he concludes. the expert.
