Healthy Skepticism Library item: 10322

Warning: This library includes all items relevant to health product marketing that we are aware of regardless of quality. Often we do not agree with all or part of the contents.

Publication type: Journal Article

Glusker A.
Assembly gets into wrangle over wording of junk food warning
BMJ 2007 Jun 2; 334:(7604):1130
http://www.bmj.com/cgi/content/full/334/7604/1130

Abstract:

A minor tussle over language broke out at this year’s meeting of the World Health Assembly, the annual forum through which the World Health Organization is governed by its member states.

After the much debated adoption in 2004 of WHO’s global strategy on diet, physical activity, and health, this year’s assembly turned to the question of implementation.

This was to be carried out under the global strategy on non-communicable diseases. Norway introduced a resolution calling for the development of a “code” that would promote responsible marketing to children of foods and non-alcoholic beverages that are high in saturated fat, trans fat, sugar, and salt content. But the United States objected to the word “code,” and ensuing discussions resulted in a revised text that substituted the phrase “a set of recommendations.”

Although some observers interpret both formulations to be voluntary, the US felt that a code could possibly be construed as . . .