France confronts poor diets.

Decision News Media's Dairy Reporter website (Montpellier) reported on March 5, 2007 that France is getting serious about healthy diets-serious as in a 1.5 percent fine of a company's advertising budget if the company does not include one of four approved messages on its food product advertising. The new rules apply to all broadcast and print advertising.

The Dairy Reporter website said that the rules were implemented because of a concern in France (as in other Western nations) over junk food and obesity.

The four messages that companies have to choose from are as follows. "Avoid snacking between meals;" "Avoid eating too much salt, sugar or fat;" "Take regular exercise," and "Eat at least five portions of fruit and vegetables every day." The rules even specify how much space must be allotted to the messages. For both screen and print the amount of space is required to be 7.0 percent.

The radio rules say that the messages must be read aloud right after the radio spot.

The French government has expressed particular concern about the country's overweight children. Nearly 20 percent of all children in France "are certified as obese," said the Dairy Reporter. Overall, 12 percent of the French population was characterized as obese in 2006. And 29 percent of the population was considered overweight.

Consumer groups in France were critical of the new rules saying that they did not go far enough. They pointed out that both the United Kingdom (UK) and Sweden had banned food advertising directed toward children. There was some concern expressed also that the messages would be missed. One group cited a test message on a breakfast cereal that was missed by nearly half of the people who saw the packaging.