In a bid to tackle child obesity, the European Commission has asked the food and drinks industry to stop targeting children with advertising.
But it has decided not to propose regulating children's advertising or placing warning labels on food products, opting instead to promote voluntary codes of conduct for industry to follow.
The light-touch regulatory approach is detailed in a commission White Paper on nutrition published yesterday, which was strongly criticised by consumer groups.
"It is disappointing, minimalist and not ambitious. There is no regulatory action proposed for nutritional labelling or on the promotion of unhealthy foods in the media," said Jim Murray, director of the European consumer's organisation, BEUC. "This White Paper is like many slimming plans - based on false hopes."
Medical groups such as the Irish Heart Foundation (IHF) had also lobbied Brussels to impose an EU ban on advertising of energy-dense foods and sugary drinks to children. They wanted warning labels to be placed on foods with high fat content.
"We wanted a watershed placed on these type of adverts of 9pm across the EU," said Michael O'Shea, IHF chief executive. "Sweden has introduced its own law, but because broadcasters operate across national borders children can still be targeted."
But the commission rejected the arguments for regulation. Health commissioner Markos Kyprianou said imposing bans on children's advertising would take too long and his preference was to get industry more involved in the fight against obesity. He said industry should reduce the level of salt, fats and sugar in food and that the commission would review the situation in 2010 to decide if regulation was needed.
Statistics in the White Paper point to a growing obesity epidemic in Europe. In a majority of states more than 50 per cent of adults are overweight. Some 21.7 million children are overweight with the figure growing by 400,000 each year. Ireland ranks well when compared with other EU states, ranking 23rd out of 27 states in terms of the prevalence of obesity in the population.
The paper stresses the importance of enabling consumers to make informed choices about food, ensuring that healthy options are available and encourages people to exercise more. Poor diets and low levels of physical activity account for six out of seven leading risk factors for ill-health in Europe.
But the strategy concludes: "Firstly, the individual is ultimately responsible for his lifestyle, and that of his children, while recognising the importance and the influence of the environment on his behaviour."
The White Paper specifically proposes:
• creating a new high-level group comprising a representative from each EU state to focus on nutrition- and obesity-related health issues
• greater efforts by the food industry to reduce fat, salt and sugar in products
• development of stronger voluntary advertising codes in the EU
• sport organisations develop advertising campaigns to encourage exercise.
The food industry welcomed the White Paper yesterday as a measured response to the challenge of obesity. "It recognises there are a number of factors at play in the problem and the food industry is just one of these," said Paul Kelly, director of Food and Drink Industry Ireland.
However, the Food Standards Authority, which lobbied the commission on the plan, said it was disappointed by the general nature of strategy and the lack of specific plans.