Monitoring Food Marketing to Children in Turkey (2018)

The Vienna Declaration on Nutrition and Noncommunicable Diseases, the WHO European Food and Nutrition Action Plan and the WHO report of the Commission on Ending Childhood Obesity all recommend that countries enact a series of comprehensive programmes to promote the intake of healthy foods and reduce the intake of foods and non-alcoholic beverages high in saturated fat, salt and/or free sugars (HFSS foods).

One of the recommended measures is to introduce policies that effectively restrict the marketing of HFSS foods to children. This report shows that food was the most heavily advertised product category on television (TV) in Turkey, accounting for 32.1% of total advertisements, and most food advertisements on TV and online are for energy-dense, HFSS foods, or restaurant advertisements that do not comply with the WHO nutrient profile model (NPM). Only 21.2% the products advertised on TV and 25.6% of those advertised online represent core-food nutrient items.