More than half the supermarket products marketed at kids are unhealthy, new obesity research has revealed.
The Obesity Policy Coalition surveyed 186 packaged foods with cartoons or characters designed to attract children. They found 52 per cent were classified as unhealthy by the Food Standards Australia, New Zealand.
Kids' ice creams, ice blocks and snack bars were the worst with almost 90 per cent of each being found to be unhealthy.
Among the unhealthy products were Kellogg's Frosties, which are 41 per cent sugar, and Kraft Cheestik Sticks, which contain 17.5g of saturated fat per 100g.
One in three Kiwi children are obese or overweight.
OPC executive manager Jane Martin was shocked to see so many manufacturers directly targeting children with unhealthy food.
"It's extremely frustrating to see cartoons and animations being used to lure children and
create pester power to push parents into buying unhealthy products for kids.
"Children are naturally drawn to fun, colourful characters on foods in the supermarket,
and food companies are fully aware of this. They know that children have an incredible
amount of power over what their parents buy.
"It's a shame that this powerful marketing tactic is not being used to sell more healthy
products instead."
Martin said Chile, which has been very progressive in obesity prevention, has restricted the use of cartoons on unhealthy food packaging. She said urgent action was needed to protect children from the plethora of junk food being promoted at them.
Kellogg's spokesman Derek Lau said the research insinuated that parents have less influence on their kids than a cartoon "which is hugely discrediting to what parents decide to choose or don't choose for their kids".
Lau said that cereals contribute 4 per cent of the total sugar intake for Kiwi kids and 75 per cent of Kelloggs cereals had four health stars or above.
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