The Grocery Manufacturers Association (GMA) has said that industry is doing its part to help consumers build healthy diets, in response to a new research published in the latest edition of the American Journal of Preventive Medicine that criticized trade organizations progress on food marketing to children as limited.
The research review of 117 published articles and reports sought to assess how much progress industry has made in changing and reducing marketing of unhealthy foods to children in the five year period to January 2011, since the Institute of Medicine (IOM) first recommended ways in which industry stakeholders could help promote a healthy diet back in 2005. The review reported that trade organizations, including the GMA, have made only limited progress in reducing marketing to children , after weighing its members positive actions in the context of spending $1.6 million lobbying against soda taxes, and developing a front of pack labeling scheme in conjunction with the Food Marketing Institute.
Responding to the review, the GMA said: The health and wellness of our consumers has always been a top priority, and we have significantly accelerated our effort to help consumers build healthier lifestyles in recent years.
The GMA, which represents the interests of food and beverage manufacturing companies in the United States, said its members have developed and introduced to the marketplace more than 20,000 healthier products between 2002 and 2009 with reduced calories, fat, sodium or sugar; pledged to remove 1.5 trillion calories from the food supply by 2015; and supports Michelle Obama’s campaign to end childhood obesity within a generation.
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