Reach and public health implications of proposed new food marketing regulation in Germany: an updated analysis

Introduction Advertising of unhealthy foods to children is a key public health concern as exposure to such advertising has been shown to adversely affect children’s food preferences, choices, purchases and intake. The proposed Children’s Food Advertising Act (Kinder-Lebensmittel-Werbegesetz or KLWG) in Germany aims to regulate such marketing by using an adapted version of the World Health Organization Regional Office for Europe Nutrient Profile Model (WHO NPM). Since the first announcement of the proposed new legislation in February 2023, several revisions to the proposed law have been made. In the present study, we evaluate the reach and public health implications of the planned law’s latest draft proposed in June 2023, updating a previously published analysis of the initial proposal. Methods Our analysis is based on a dataset from the open-source online database Open Food Facts, comprising 660 food products randomly selected from the German market. We assigned these products to the 22 food and beverage categories covered the WHO NPM. We then applied the nutrient and ingredient thresholds of the the June 2023 version of the KLWG to this sample to assess the share of products permitted for marketing to children under the proposed legislation. Results Applying the adjustments from the June 2023 KLWG version increased the proportion of products allowed for marketing to children in three product categories, namely plant-based milks (from 70% to 73%), yogurt and cream (from 13% to 73%) and fresh and frozen meat, fish and eggs (from 93% to 100%). Overall, this raised the median share of products across all 22 product categories permitted for marketing to children from 38% to 55%, with an interquartile range of 11%-73%. Conclusion Our previous study found the use of the WHO NPM, as part of the KLWG, to be feasible in the German context and suggested additional threshold adjustments. The latest draft of the KLWG from June 2023 incorporated several of these, substantially increasing the proportion of products allowed for marketing to children. This analysis provides an updated perspective on the evolving debate and its implications for public health.