The Mountain Eagle
WHITESBURG WEATHER

Snack food makers sell healthier treats





NEW YORK

America’s snack food makers are marketing smaller portion packs, using healthier fats and reducing sugar in some of the nation’s favorite potato chips and cookies.

While they’re trying to make money off of greater demand for healthier grab-and-go food, they’re also hoping the new products will help them avoid increased federal regulation and the threat of lawsuits that allege complicity for the nation’s rising rate of obesity.

Kellogg Co., maker of Pop- Tarts and Cheez-It crackers, said last week it will restrict use of licensed characters such as Shrek in its advertising, and either reduce the amount of calories, fat, sugar and sodium in products or stop marketing them to children under age 12 by the end of next year.

Kellogg said the changes were the result of negotiations with two Massachusetts parents, the Bostonbased Campaign For A Commercial Free Childhood and the Center for Science in the Public Interest, a food lobby group. Together, they had threatened to sue the company and Nickelodeon, the children’s cable network owned by Viacom Inc.

Kellogg’s changes build on a move by Walt Disney Co. last fall to limit the use of its characters in marketing junk food to children, and an earlier one by Kraft Foods Inc., which in 2005 stopped advertising products high in fat and sugar to children under 11. Kraft has also expanded its organic and diet lineup.

Nutritionists note many of these products are far from health food, but some of the changes are an improvement. Smaller servings, such as 100- calorie packs of products such as Frito-Lay’s Doritos and Kraft’s Oreo thin crisps, can help people eat less, said Cornell University nutrition and psychology professor David Levitsky.

The challenge for the $10.39 billion a-year snack foods industry is to balance healthier ingredients and consumer taste. And the numbers show it’s struggling. Sales of reduced fat, low fat and fat-free snacks fell 2.6 percent in the past year, according to data from Nielsen LabelTrends. Total snack sales rose 3.4 percent.

“I think the low-calorie ones don’t taste good,” Lynn Somers-Davis of New York said, while shopping with her 3-year-old daughter. “We eat the full-fat version, just in smaller amounts. It’s mainly a taste issue.”

At the same time, federal regulators are scrutinizing food marketing more closely.

The Federal Trade Commission has set a public hearing for July 18 to discuss food advertising targeting children, where comments from critics could put pressure on food companies.

The FTC in coming months also is expected to survey 44 food and drink companies about their spending and methods used in advertising to children. The survey could provide more fodder for critics.


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