Nutrition marketing on children's foods

Given the rise in childhood obesity, marketing non‐nutrient dense foods to children has instigated a worldwide debate. This research sought to determine how often nutrition marketing (health claims, nutrient content claims, or implied claims) is used on labels of foods containing high amounts (>20% daily value) of saturated fat, sodium, and/or sugar (operationally defined as >6 grams sugar for non‐fruit/milk based products and >21grams sugar for fruit/milk based products). All items packaged with food labels (N=9,429) in one grocery store in Grand Forks, N.D. were visually surveyed. Of 1507 products perceived to be marketed to children, 73% had nutrition marketing. Of those, 59% had high saturated fat, sodium and/or sugar content; high sugar content being the most frequently identified (13.97%, 15.06%, and 49.45%, respectively). The most commonly used nutrition marketing statements were “good source of calcium”, “good source of Vitamin C”, “made with real…”, “low/trans fat free”, and “low/fat free”. Whether nutrition marketing of products with high saturated fat, sodium and/or sugar content influences consumer product choice is unknown.