| Comment Number: | 529477-00001 |
| Received: | 5/10/2007 4:59:14 PM |
| Organization: | Healthy Eating, Active Communities (HEAC); Central California Regional Obesity Prevention Program |
| Commenter: | Jennifer Miller |
| State: | CA |
| Agency: | Federal Trade Commission |
| Rule: | Food Industry Marketing Practices to Children and Adolescents |
| Attachments: | 529477-00001.pdf Download Adobe Reader |
Comments:
Re: Food Industry Marketing to Children Report: Paperwork Comment; FTC File No. P064504 Dear FTC Commissioners: We are writing to support and encourage the Federal Trade Commission to move forward with its request for information from 44 major food and beverage companies and quick service restaurants about their marketing practices and expenditures directed to children and adolescents. The Institute of Medicine’s (IOM’s) extensive study, Food Marketing to Children and Adolescents: Threat or Opportunity?, found that marketing of foods and beverages has an impact on children’s food preferences, requests and consumption habits. While these conclusions are strong, there is still much we don’t know about how companies are targeting children and adolescents with food and beverage marketing. Because of the impact food marketing has on children’s health we need to know the full nature and extent of the means and mechanisms being used to target our children. We, the undersigned, are members of Healthy Eating, Active Communities (HEAC), a statewide program with local collaboratives in six California communities representing 480,634 people, and of the Central California Regional Obesity Prevention Program (CCROPP), a program with community councils for each of the six counties of the San Joaquin Valley representing 872,377 people. We are working to improve children’s food and physical activity environments to improve their health now and in the future. We are very concerned about the marketing and advertising of unhealthy foods and beverages to children and adolescents and encourage you to pursue your investigation. Thank you for taking this action. Baldwin Park HEAC Collaborative, Site Coordinator Rosa Soto, 626-961-1179 Chula Vista HEAC Collaborative, Site Coordinator Tanya Rovira-Osterwalder, 619-691-8801 Santa Ana HEAC Collaborative, Site Coordinator Leah Fraser, PhD, 714-542-7792 South Shasta County HEAC Collaborative, Site Coordinator Michele Erickson, 530-378-6060 South Los Angeles HEAC Collaborative, Site Coordinator Aurora Flores, 323-235-6343, x129 Oakland HEAC Collaborative, Site Coordinator Chris Shaw, 510-595-6439 Central California Regional Obesity Prevention Program (CCROPP), Regional Program Coordinator Genoveva Islas-Hooker, 559-228-2159 Following the leadership of the community collaboratives and councils of HEAC and CCROPP, the Bay Area Regional Health Inequities Initiative (BARHII), a collaboration of public health officials, senior managers and staff from eight bay area public health departments endorses the sentiments expressed in the letter. From our vantage in public health, we, too, are working to improve children’s food and physical activity environments to improve their health now and in the future. We, too, encourage you to pursue your investigation. BARHII, Bob Prentice, Director, on behalf of BARHII health departments. 510-302-3321