Food Industry Approach to Rising Prevalence of Children Obesity in the Czech Republic

The aim of this paper is to discuss the approach of the food industry to the issue of rising obesity amongst children in the Czech Republic. Generally there are different corporate approaches to the obesity issue. Industry stakeholders consider that young people have a right to obtain information from advertising, and therefore they support selfregulation rather than statutory regulation resulting from stricter legislation. Self-regulation in the food industry is relatively new compared to other economic sectors (tobacco production as an example). There is a concern that the industry could use it to avoid more stringent regulation (Hawkes, 2007). The research exists on proving the effectiveness of self-regulation on children ́s advertising exposure and in changing household purchasing behaviors (Huang and Yang, 2013). The effect of a ban on fast-food television advertising was also estimated with a result of reducing the number of overweight children aged 3-11 by 18% and adolescents 12-18 years by 14% (Chou, Rashad, and Grossman, 2008). C. Hawkes states that the discrepancy between the proponents of strict national legislation and self-regulation of industry will grow by demanding more evidence about the effectiveness of legislation and self-regulation on both sides and that “the future developments will depend on whether the key stakeholders manage to convince lawmakers and the public that food marketing to young people is either ethically unacceptable (however accurate and truthful it is) or acceptable (provided it is accurate and truthful). The former will lead to greater statutory regulation, the latter to more self-regulation” (Hawkes, 2007). The food industry is obviously more comfortable with self-regulation. Global food producers face the growing obesity issue with building, supporting and promoting responsible corporate marketing of their standpoint, which is based on the importance of a balance between energy intake and output. They continuously work on adaptation of their product policy by commitments and action plans to produce smaller portions, provide nutrition information on the packaging and changing product formulas. They restrict the communication policy of brands targeted at children and reinforce the other side of the obesity issue, e.g. support energy output by organizing RESEARCH PAPERS