The Financial Times

By Andrew Bounds

9 November 2006

Food and drinks companies can avoid draconian regulation if they voluntarily cut down on fat and salt in their products, give clear nutritional information and reduce advertising to children, the European Commission said on Thursday.

Markos Kyprianou, the health commissioner, praised companies co-operating in the fight against obesity and called on others to follow suit, saying he did not want to resort to the blunt instrument of lawmaking.

"We are facing a complex problem that cannot be solved by legislation,” Mr Kyprianou said. “It is a new way of working together.”

Coca-Cola and PepsiCo, the soft drinks companies, McDonald’s, the US burger chain, and packaged food giants Unilever and Kraft were singled out as good examples of companies that had changed for the better.

However, Mr Kyprianou said independent monitoring of commitments was essential to their credibility. “If self-regulation fails we will take other steps,” he said.

The voluntary approach mirrors the strategy the Cypriot commissioner took in a recent debate on binge drinking. Despite pressure from some members for advertising bans, he gave the industry a chance of self-regulation.

“The Commission wants to use what works,” said one soft drinks company executive. “This approach produces quicker results.”

McDonald’s, which ann­oun­ced this week it was cutting the use of harmful trans-fatty acids in Europe, was commended for devising a simple panel showing how much of the recommended daily amount of calories, fat and so on products contain.

Unilever said it had eliminated tonnes of sugars and salt from its standard products. Kraft had stopped advertising fatty products to children and stopped selling in primary schools.

Nine companies that are members of the Union of Euro­pean Beverages Associations have agreed to end advertising to under-12s. “We are moving with the consumer,” said Dominique Reiniche, the head of Unesda and European president of Coca-Cola, said. “We used to talk of markets; now we talk about society.”

Some 90 per cent of EU citizens in a recent poll said they believed junk food and drinks advertising influenced children. The soft drinks industry’s pledge will be monitored by PwC, the financial services firm, and an expert in broadcasting. “It’s a learning process,” Ms Reiniche said.

Mr Kyprianou said that one in five children was overweight and 400,000 more became so every year. He told the FT: “This is a responsibility for all of us. The key question is to give people a choice of product, allow them to make an informed choice and educate them.” He is considering a Europewide standard nutrition labelling scheme to replace numerous national and voluntary company or industry standards that lead to confusion.

European health ministers meet in Istanbul next week to discuss a marketing code of conduct drawn up under the auspices of the World Health Organisation.

The Bureau of European Union Consumers repeated its call for a ban on advertising to children, which boosted their “pester power” over parents.