We have a personal and professional stake in making sure they have continued access to wholesome, nutritious, and affordable food, advertised in a responsible manner.

That’s why Food, Health & Consumer Products of Canada together with two other industry associations, mark June 28, 2023, as the day we put in place our Code for the Responsible Advertising of Food and Beverage Products to Children. It’s also a day we question why the federal government continues to try to support duplicate efforts aimed at the same result (including C-252, now before Parliament). If passed, this legislation and subsequent unnecessary regulations will be costly for the government to enforce.

In these days of higher grocery costs and higher interest rates, it is in no one’s interests for the government to add to the cost of food and beverages.

Our code meets or exceeds the government’s stated aim of protecting children by setting out rules for advertisers of food and beverage products ensuring a responsible approach to child audiences. Ad Standards, the neutral third-party non-profit self-regulating body for advertising, will enforce the Code through a complaints-based mechanism applicable to all advertisers. For ads that were precleared under the Code by Ad Standards, the complainant will be advised that these ads are compliant, and no further action will be taken.

It starts with a common sense premise that unless the food or beverage product in question meets specific nutrition criteria, the advertising may not be primarily directed to children under the age of 13.

We all recognize that our children are a special audience and that advertisers must be sensitive to messages about food, and food choices. Determining whether ads are primarily directed to children will be based on criteria followed by advertisers who already follow prohibitions established under Quebec’s consumer protection legislation.

We are proud to say that our code achieves the shared, (with government,) goal of protecting children in a direct and cost-effective way, across all media platforms -- further, industry is committed to implementing it.

We urge the federal government to abandon their costly, burdensome and redundant efforts and look seriously at the clear industry-led solution that already exists; one that is now in place and designed to restrict advertising primarily directed at children. 

This op-ed was originally published on LinkedIn.