Nutrition, Health and Cartoon Animation on Food and Drink Packaging

Action on Salt, Action on Sugar, Children’s Food Campaign and others, are calling for a complete ban of cartoon animations on packaging that market unhealthy products to children.

In the biggest survey of its kind, it was found that over half of all food and drink products, which use cartoon animations on pack to appeal to children, were unnecessarily high in fat, saturated fat, sugar and/or salt. The majority were found on foods not recommended for regular consumption (cakes, biscuits, sweets, chocolates etc). Furthermore, 50% of the products surveyed would not be eligible for broadcast and online advertising, so it seems illogical that they are still able to promote their products through the presence of cartoon characters on pack.