Critics say restrictions on food marketing would block ads for popular, healthy foods

Proposed restrictions on food marketing would ensnare many popular — and ostensibly healthful — products, according to critics of the proposal.

A working group of federal agencies recently released a set of marketing rules it wants the food industry to adopt voluntarily. Industry and business groups have blasted the proposals, which seek to limit the marketing of unhealthy food to children.

The Sensible Food Policy Coalition said Thursday that the proposed restrictions would prohibit marketing of 88 of the 100 most popular food items in the U.S., including products such as yogurt and whole-wheat bread.

“The … recommendation that parents stop feeding their children oatmeal, cereal and most dairy products simply doesn’t make sense,” said Dan Jaffe, executive vice president for government relations at the Association of National Advertisers.

According to the coalition, even bottled water couldn’t be advertised under the proposed restrictions because it does not provide any nutritional value. Canned vegetables have too much salt to meet the proposed marketing criteria, as does salad dressing, the group said.

The Federal Trade Commission, one of the four agencies that devised the draft recommendations, has pushed back hard against such criticism in the past. The FTC said last month that its proposal wouldn’t ban any marketing and sharply rejected suggestions that the voluntary program would infringe on free speech.

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