WASHINGTON (Reuters) ? A government regulator that is part of a working group concerned about junk food ads to children will announce on Wednesday it is backing off of some proposals for voluntary marketing principles.
An interagency working group, made up of the Federal Trade Commission, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Food and Drug Administration, and the U.S. Department of Agriculture, said in April companies should voluntarily end all food advertising to children unless they were for healthy choices, such as whole grains, fresh fruits or vegetables.
Under the original proposal, salty, fatty or very sweet foods or foods with trans fats would no longer be advertised to children, defined as age 17 or under.
But David Vladeck, head of the FTC's Bureau of Consumer Protection, is expected to testify to a congressional committee on Wednesday that the working group made major changes in its proposals.
First, it lowered the age of the affected children to 11 or under.
"FTC staff has determined that, with the exception of certain in-school marketing activities, it is not necessary to encompass adolescents ages 12 to 17 within the scope of the covered marketing," according to Vladeck's written testimony.
The testimony was posted on the House Energy and Commerce Committee website.
In the testimony, the FTC excluded advertising aimed at a general audience and advertising that was part of charitable or community events.
It also said it would not recommend banning clowns and cartoon characters -- think Ronald McDonald and SpongeBob SquarePants -- used to advertise unhealthy foods.
Advertisers, who had been lobbying hard on the issue, were pleased with the changes, but said the fight was not over.
"I think the best thing that they can do is to withdraw the proposal and endorse the (industry-supported) Children's Food and Beverage Advertising Initiative," said Dan Jaffe, vice president of the Association of National Advertisers.
The effort sets voluntary standards such as barring added sugars in juices and limiting flavored milk to 24 grams of sugar. It includes companies such as McDonalds Inc's, General Mills Inc and PepsiCo Inc.
"We believe that the food, beverage, restaurant and advertising community has done far more, unfortunately, than any other segment of society in regard to obesity problems," he said. "We don't see why the government really needs to step into this area."
Margo Wootan, director of nutrition policy at the Center for Science in the Public Interest, said she was concerned Congress, which has oversight over the agencies, would press for the advertising principles to be scrapped.
"The thing that worries me the most is that the congress is not asking for little tweaks to the standards ... they're asking the agencies to kill the whole thing," she said. "The overwhelming majority of advertising to kids is for unhealthy food, about 80 percent."
A background memo prepared for the U.S. House of Representatives Energy and Commerce Committee indicated some hostility to the proposed limits. Lawmakers sent a letter to the agencies in September asking questions such as what evidence is there that junk food advertisements are linked obesity and what would the proposal cost, in terms of ad revenues and jobs?
The Obama administration, with its goal of containing healthcare costs, has emphasized children's health. First Lady Michelle Obama's "Let's Move" campaign has pushed children to eat better and exercise more.
Concern about obesity rates prompted the campaign. About 17 percent of U.S. children aged 2-19 are obese, according to data on the CDC website. Nearly one in three U.S. children are overweight.
(Reporting by Diane Bartz and Lisa Baertlein; editing by Andre Grenon)
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