Kellogg's Agrees to Make Foods for Children Healthier

According to the the Associated Press, Kellogg's has agreed to raise the nutritional value of certain foods that it produces in order to avoid a lawsuit threatened by CPSI (Center for Science in the Public Interest) and two Massachusetts parents.

According to the CPSI's website, one of the parents, Sherri Carlson, notes that "As a parent, I do my best to get my kids to eat healthy foods. . .then they turn on Nickelodeon and see all those enticing junk-food ads. Adding insult to injury, we enter the grocery store and see our beloved Nick characters plastered on all those junky snacks and cereals. This irresponsible marketing to young children undermines my efforts as a parent and must be stopped."

CPSI had some hard research to back up their claims. Their studies revealed that "Of 80 Kellogg foods found in the supermarket with kid-friendly on-package marketing, 84 percent were for nutritionally poor foods. CSPI found 21 kid-friendly web sites for Kellogg products, all of which highlighted junk foods. And of 92 child-oriented branded items Kellogg had for sale on the web, 82 percent had a logo or mascot from a junk-food brand."

According to the CPSI's website, the Massachusetts statute under which they were suing allowed for a mere $25 of damages per violation on Kellogg's part. However, a violation would be constituted by a child watching an ad for "junk food" made by Kelloggs, or even seeing junk-food packaging with Dora the Explorer or other popular character. This would quickly add up to billions of dollars in damages.

The USA Today reports that in order to avoid the lawsuit, Kellogg's agreed to enact a new nutritional standard for the foods that it markets to children, and that the standard "calls for a single serving of a product to contain no more than 200 calories; no trans fat and no more than 2 grams of saturated fat; no more than 230 milligrams of sodium, except for Eggo frozen waffles; and no more than 12 grams of sugar, not counting sugar from fruit, dairy and vegetables."

In addition, Kellogg's has agreed to change the way that it markets foods to children in other media, by modifying games on their website that are designed to promote the brand, and also adding "Guideline daily amounts" to the front of cereal boxes in order to show how their food fits into a recommended daily intake. The commitments by Kelloggs seemed to please Michael Jacobson, the executive director of CPSI, who proclaimed that "By committing to these nutrition standards and marketing reforms, Kellogg has vaulted over the rest of the food industry."

Sources:

http://www.cspinet.org/new/200601181.html

http://www.usatoday.com/money/industries/food/2007-06-14-kellogg-healthier_N.htm?loc=interstitialskip