Consumption will prohibit advertising directed at minors of chocolates, cakes, sweets, ice cream or juices

The Minister of Consumption of the Government of Spain, Alberto Garzon, has announced this Thursday that its portfolio will regulate, through a royal decree, the food and beverage advertising broadcast “unhealthy” directed at public child and adolescent. The regulations will affect all media, including social networks.

The law, that will be approved as early as 2022, will be applied on five categories of products regardless of nutrient content. The first category is that of chocolate and sugar confectionery products, energy bars and sweet toppings and desserts. It is followed by the food group that includes cakes, cookies and other bakery products, and three other categories that include juices, energy drinks and ice creams will not be advertised.

For the rest of the product categories, a limit of nutrient content per 100 grams. In this case, they can be announced as long as total and saturated fats, total and added sugar and salt levels are kept below the limits established for each product.

Based on these premises, companies may have their own self-regulation as long as they suppose a protection framework superior to that of the standard itself.

According to Garzón, self-regulation system that has been in force since 2005 It has been shown “insufficient“, as shown by the data on overweight and obesity affecting children and of which advertising is one of the causes.

At a press conference at the Barcelona City Council with the mayor, Ada Colau, Garzón recalled that the figures are alarming and worrying. The excess of overweight in the Spanish State is 23.3% and obesity 17.3%. The sum exceeds 40% for boys and girls between the ages of 6 and 9. He also added that these figures are double among the most humble families than among the wealthiest, according to the Aladdin report.

Garzón has said that this regulatory framework, which will not need to pass through Congress and would come into force when the Council of Ministers proceeds, is similar to that of countries such as the United Kingdom, Portugal and Norway, and has explained that, from From these premises, companies may have their own self-regulation as long as they imply a protection superior to the norm.