HEALTH / CHILD OBESITY

Junk food producers asked to cooperate

BANGKOK: -- Paediatricians and nutritionists yesterday called on snacks and junk food manufacturers to show more responsibility to their young clients by adjusting product ingredients and designing new snack packages to make them fit children's real needs. The groups, which represent four networks of the National Health Foundation, the Nutrition Research Institute of Mahidol University, the Royal College of Paediatricians of Thailand, and the ANTSKid Network (Dek Thai Mai Kin Wan), said they have already submitted their recommendations to snack producers.

Assoc Prof Prasobsri Ungthavorn, president of the Royal College of Paediatricians of Thailand, said snack producers can help by reducing unnecessary ingredients such as sodium and sugar, or making alternative products high in nutritional value and low on calories.

Each package should contain no more than 150 kcal.

The third choice, said Ms Prasobsri, is to give more useful information on the product labels so that consumers can choose which products to buy.

The campaign, part of a research project on child obesity, is being sponsored by the National Health Foundation and the Thailand Research Fund in an attempt to effectively tackle the problem which has significantly increased among Thai children.

Research conducted between 1996-2001 by Dr Ladda Mohsuwan, a paediatrician from the Prince of Songkla University, showed that 16-36% of Thai children were suffering from obesity problems. The study involved 47,000 children and 268 schools nationwide. It also found that 12% were obese and 5% overweight.

The problem stemmed from the influence of a Western lifestyle, including the consumption of less vegetables, non-active habits like computer games and internet playing. The market strategy that targets children is also to blame, she said.

Assoc Prof Prapaisri Sirichakrawal, of Mahidol University's Nutrition Research Institute, said snack control measures had already been imposed in foreign countries. The UK, for example, imposes a ban on junk food advertisements, while the snack labels are colour-coded to make consumers aware of the nutritious quality.

Australia and Canada also have strict measures against snack advertisements and ban kids' idols from being presenters. She said her institute is about to launch a trial project on the snacks' warning labels by using colours and certain symbols, like stars, to indicate the safety level of the products.

However, she said it was necessary to educate consumers before implementing such steps to ensure they know how to interpret the label and choose the right products for their children. A standard snack should not have more than 2.5g of oil and 12g of sugar. The amount of sodium should also be kept low, less than 100mg. Children should not be allowed to have more than two snacks, each containing 100-150kcal, a day.

HEALTH / CHILD OBESITY

Junk food producers asked to cooperate

Children should not be allowed to have more than two snacks, each containing 100-150kcal, a day.

So it is really down to the parents, not the snack producers.

How can the producer control how many packets are eaten by a particular child??

No mention here of junk food outlets, like Mac Donalds etc............

In my book, they are much bigger culprits.

"Ban the Burger" and bring back good nutritional Thai food.