by Sue Payne
- past NfCG Chairman andThere have been several reports from food organisations regretting the amount of advertising, particularly that shown when children are watching, which promotes food with high fat and sugar contents. NfCG’s Food Network members discussed the subject at one of their workshops and wondered how the healthy eating message, eat more fruit and vegetables, (Take Five) could be introduced.
A project carried out by Roger Dickinson at the University of Leicester, funded by the Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food, looked into the question of balancing TV advertising against programmes. It studied whether childrens’ diet is influenced by their viewing habits, explored representations of food and food use in British TV programmes and examined the impact on childrens’ food choices. The project hopes to provide soundly based information on the role of TV in the formation of attitudes, beliefs and behaviour.
A video was made of a fortnight’s programmes and advertisements featuring food on BBC1 and 2, TV and Channel 4. In 83% of the programming food was only an incidental theme, but nearly 27% of non-fiction programming had a significant food element (food and drink and cookery programmes). There were 1,186 adverts for food in the period, more than 4 adverts for every hour of output on ITV and Channel 4. The project concluded that TV programmes offer a healthier, more balanced diet than adverts; fruit and vegetables accounted for roughly a third of the food depicted and described in programmes.
The Project researchers took a questionnaire into schools. There they picked children for focus group discussions on videoed extracts, and followed on with a series of visits to selected households to show the video extracts to families.
Researchers wanted to find out how young people resolve contradictory messages in adverts and TV programmes and in family conversations. They concluded that TV is mediated and filtered by family circumstances, shared family meals being seen as the norm.
But the impression from the report is that the children were carefully chosen, they had two parents and ate family meals together. Links are difficult to establish but the researchers consider that TV can be regarded as a resource with offerings to be interpreted individually, and a repertoire of ideas for food choices. The research project was carried out for the Ministry of Agriculture Fisheries and Food and can be viewed at their library on request.
Community Safety Chiefs in Devon are to press the Government for tougher rules on labelling food and drink for vegetarians, which, according to a recent analysis of twenty products, are frequently misleading.
Devon Trading Standards’ tests showed that vegetarian sausages and burgers surveyed always had less protein and more carbohydrate than claimed on the labels (500% more in one case). A survey of six soya "milks" revealed that calcium levels were 83% less than in cows’ milk while a "calcium enriched" sample certainly contained more but was still 59% less than cows’ milk. This was despite labels claiming equivalent levels of energy, protein, carbohydrates and fat. Analysis showed, in general, markedly less nutritional value than that stated on the label.
Director of Trading Standards and Consumer Protection, Steve Butterworth, told members of the Community Safety Subcommittee meeting in Exeter:
"You can accept some margin of error but this was way out. It would be helpful if you could rely on the labelling on these products. Vegetarians and especially vegans need to get a balanced diet. If they rely on these labels they could have problems with calcium deficiency".
by Shirley Hedworth and Stuart Coverley.
Last summer the Science Museum organised a gathering of representatives of the food industry and consumer bodies to brainstorm ideas for a genetically modified food exhibition. The exhibition was sponsored by MAFF, the Food and Drink Federation and the Biotechnology and Biological Science Research Council.
The gathering bore fruit and an exhibition "Future Foods" was opened by the
Minister in November at the Science Museum, Exhibition Road, London. It will remain in
London until March and then tour the country. Whatever your views on GM foods, the
exhibition is well worth a visit. It contains a range of easily understood and innovative
displays, hands-on quizzes and IT modules and deals with such questions as:
Examples of tomato, cauliflower, potato, banana and jeans (!) are used to illustrate the step by step developments towards what, the exhibition suggests, are better products - and offers a taste of the future. Go and see it when it comes your way.
That is the title of a Government White Paper which explains how the new agency will work. A leaflet explaining briefly what the Government has in mind for the agency and containing several useful contacts to whom to make comments is available in supermarkets and shops.
If you cannot find a leaflet phone Admail 6000, London, Tel: 0645 556 000 for a free copy.
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