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Researchers have found that children who watch 80 minutes of television per day view more than 800 junk food ads each year.

Junk food ads are shown more frequently on TV at times when many children are watching, new Heart Foundation-funded research shows.

The research, led by the University of Adelaide鈥檚 Associate Professor Lisa Smithers and published in the , also showed that children were exposed to twice as much unhealthy food advertising as healthy food advertising.

Bespoke monitoring system

By building a bespoke TV monitoring system, believed to be the first of its kind in the world, A/Prof Smithers鈥� team was able to capture an entire year鈥檚 worth of television and ads from one free-to-air commercial TV network in South Australia.

鈥淭his is the most robust data we鈥檝e seen anywhere. It is the largest dataset ever used by health researchers for examining food advertising in Australia, and probably the world. Most research in this area is based on only a few days of data, and there are no Australian studies taking seasonality into account,鈥� A/Prof Smithers said.

Thirty thousand hours of television containing more than 500 hours of food advertisements (almost 100,000 food ads) were logged during 2016. The Australian Guide to Healthy Eating was used to group food and beverages into healthy, discretionary (ie, unhealthy) and other categories.

Snack foods, crumbed/battered meats, takeaway/fast food and sugary drinks were among the most frequently advertised foods.

During children鈥檚 peak viewing times, the frequency and duration of 鈥榙iscretionary鈥� (ie, junk) food advertising was 2.3 times higher each hour than for healthy foods.

Across the year, discretionary food advertising peaked at 71% of all food advertising in January, dropping to a low of 41% in August.

Food marketing impact

鈥淒iet-related problems are the leading cause of disease in Australia, and the World Health Organization has concluded that food marketing influences the types of foods that children prefer to eat, ask their parents for and ultimately consume,鈥� A/Prof Smithers said.

Some countries and regions have implemented children鈥檚 television advertising bans (Quebec, Canada), junk food advertising bans (Norway) and requirements to publish healthy eating messages when unhealthy foods are advertised (France). In Australia, all advertising during children鈥檚 TV programs is covered by the Children鈥檚 Television Standards. There are other codes developed by industry groups that aim to limit Australian children鈥檚 exposure to unhealthy food advertising; however, these codes are voluntary.

There is also no process for routine, independent monitoring of children鈥檚 exposure to food advertising.

鈥淎ustralian health, nutrition and policy experts agree that reducing children鈥檚 exposure to junk food ads is an important part of tackling obesity and there is broad public support for stronger regulation of advertising to protect children,鈥� A/Prof Smithers said.

鈥淚 would love to see the results of our research play a role in protecting children from the effects of junk food advertising.鈥�

Image credit: 漏stock.adobe.com/au/Sangiori