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Berlin (German news agency) – The CDU-affiliated interest group “Wirtschaftsrat der CDU” is opposed to plans to ban advertising for junk food aimed at children. “Federal Minister of Agriculture Cem Özdemir’s food advertising bans are activist and not effective,” said Economic Council President Astrid Hamker of the “Neue Osnabrücker Zeitung” (Thursday edition).
With his proposed law, Özdemir follows a recommendation by the WHO, which established a meta-study in 2022 between advertising and unhealthy nutrition in children. Hamker now said that Özdemir would be well advised to develop his nutritional strategy “less on the basis of green ideology” and more on the basis of scientific data. “We must not make nutrition the scourge of identity-political debates,” said Hamker. Federal Minister of Agriculture Cem Özdemir recently announced that he wanted to ban advertising for children under the age of 14 for foods with a high sugar, fat and salt content in programs and online formats. The Economic Council considers the project “not an adequate means of counteracting the increasing number of overweight children and young people”. Hamker sees this as a “criminalization of important parts of our economy”. The planned advertising ban hits “above all medium-sized food producers who generate their sales in Germany and not on the global markets”. However, it must remain possible in Germany “to be allowed to advertise a legal product”. Hamker said: “The banning of food products from billboards, analogue and digital media has no influence on eating habits”. It contradicts the WHO study, which has collected data on the subject from 80 scientific papers. According to Hamker, the ministry was unable to confirm in response to a parliamentary inquiry that there was a causal relationship between food advertising and the impact on eating habits. As a result of the corresponding EU regulations, advertising already takes into account the high need for protection of children and young people. According to Hamker, education is the key to healthy eating. “We call for a move away from advertising bans and instead a stronger focus on nutrition education in schools, for example through cooking courses, internships in the agricultural sector and awareness campaigns.”
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