Assessing the Public Health Impacts of the Children’s Food and Beverage Advertising Initiative

Published: October 2021

ID #: CAS057

Publisher: Healthy Eating Research and RTI International

Authors: Muth MK, Karns SA, Hayes M

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The Children’s Food and Beverage Advertising Initiative (CFBAI) is a voluntary industry initiative in which companies commit to featuring only foods meeting specific nutrition criteria in advertising directed primarily to children under age 12. New criteria that were announced in 2018 and went into effect in 2020 strengthened the nutrition standards and changed the criteria for total sugars to added sugars for consistency with the new Nutrition Facts label. This study assessed the relative importance of CFBAI-listed products in children’s diets compared to substitute products not on the CFBAI list, which is needed to understand the potential for the criteria to have a public health impact. This brief summarizes the results of an analysis of the effects of the criteria and recent changes; the complete results are described in more detail in the full report.

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Focus Areas: Diet Quality & Healthy Weight, Food Marketing

Keywords: Digital marketing, Food advertising, Food formulation

Age Groups: Elementary-age children (grades K to 5), Preschool-age children (ages 3 to 5)

State: National

Resource Type: Report

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