On 31.1.17 the ENVI Commission (Environment, Public Health and Food Safety) of the European Parliament adopted its opinion on the proposal to revise the so-called 'Audiovisual Media and Services Directive' (AVMSD, dir. 2010/13 / EU).
The document, signed by the Hon. Herbert Dorfmann (Forza Italia), highlights the need to protect vulnerable categories of consumers, such as children and minors, with respect to the promotion of foods and drinks with a high salt, sugar and fat content (so-called HFSS, High Fats Sugars and Sodium), as well as alcoholic beverages.
The River of Childhood Obesity, overweight and related diseases is in full swing and overflowing, with severe impact on the health and well-being of future adults but also severe social and health costs. It is therefore not surprising that MEPs return to the question of 'junk food' (or 'indulgence', in the rhetoric of Big food), trying to stem its advertising with the most subtle and current tools, such as the product placement, the social networks and the platforms of Video-sharing.
A step forward for Parliament itself, which ad April 2016 had succumbed to pressure from LOBBY of large industry, then proposing to abolish the so-called nutritional profiles that were introduced in the previous legislature to prevent the use of nutritional and health indications on unbalanced foods from a nutritional point of view. (1)
The Environment Commission of the European Parliament therefore calls for the exposure of children and minors to audiovisual commercial communications to be:
- minimized, on alcoholic beverages, of which immoderate consumption should never be encouraged. Alcohol advertising must be excluded before, during and after programs aimed at children, and must in any case be prohibited during peak hours from the point of view of their audience,
- controlled, as regards HFSS food and beverages. In the sense that their promotion must not accompany or be included in programs aimed at children (but it can precede or follow them, please note), nor in those broadcast during the peak hours of their viewing. HFSS food advertising must also be excluded from content on video platforms aimed at children.
The product placement è generally admitted in audiovisual media services, outside of news and current affairs programs, consumer or religious broadcasts, programs and content aimed at children (but not, it should be noted, those aimed at families).
A periodic report the state of application of the directive will have to be submitted by the European Commission to the Parliament and the Council, in the four years following its adoption and at subsequent three-year intervals. If the results are not consistent with the objectives set, also taking into account good practices and self-regulatory codes, the Commission will accompany the report with a regulatory proposal.
Still rather timid measures, which will have to pass the scrutiny of the Assembly in plenary session before being accepted by the Council and finally accepted by the member states. With further delays for the definition of application measures. (2) Provided that the 'Corporation' (3) based in Canada will not contest its application, relying on CETA now in the home straight).
Dario Dongo
Footnotes
(1) See reg. CE 1924/06, so-called NHC (Nutrition & Health Claims Regulation), Article 4 (Nutritional Profiles)
(2) The concept of HFSS should in fact be defined by that same institution, the European Commission, which in over 10 years has failed to develop the nutritional profiles referred to in the previous note
(3) The '10 great sisters of food', to name a few. https://www.greatitalianfoodtrade.it/big-food-i-marchi-italiani-delle-10-grandi-sorelle-del-cibo/
Dario Dongo, lawyer and journalist, PhD in international food law, founder of WIISE (FARE - GIFT - Food Times) and Égalité.
