The food industry has been under pressure to reduce the amount of advertising to children for many years, and voluntary action is already being taken by companies including Nestle and Dannon, which have signed up to a self regulation scheme to ensure products marketed towards children meet nutritional standards.

This latest study aimed to assess the influence that branding has on the quantity of food that children aged four to six choose to consume when they are free to eat as much branded or non-branded food as they like.

Surprise results

Initially, the study’s hypothesis was that all children, regardless of weight, would consume more when presented with branded foods, so the researchers said they were surprised when only overweight children ate more.

Forty-three children were involved in the study and they returned to the research center for lunch four times on non-consecutive days. On two of the occasions they were given familiar branded foods, such as Lunchables and Trix yogurt, and on the other two occasions, the same food was repackaged in non-branded containers. Twenty-three of the children were not overweight and twenty were overweight, classified as having a body mass index (BMI) above the 85th BMI-for-age percentile.

The study found that overweight children ate about 40 calories more when presented with popular branded foods. Conversely, children who were not overweight actually consumed about 40 calories less when food was branded. And there was also a difference between boys and girls: Girls ate about 40 calories less of the branded foods, while boys ate about 45 calories more.

Brand awareness

The researchers also found that the children’s brand awareness was independent of whether parents reported buying a particular brand or not, suggesting that the home eating environment may not be the primary place that children become brand-aware.

“Future interventions aimed at reducing food advertising exposure among children should take this into account,” they wrote.

Efforts have increased across the industry, and across the globe, to curb the growing prevalence of obesity.An estimated 22m children under the age of five are overweight worldwide, according to World Health Organization figures.

In the USA the number of overweight children has doubled and the number of overweight adolescents has trebled since 1980.

The study was supported by a grant from the National Institutes of Health and a Pilot and Feasibility Grant from the New York Obesity Research Center.

High consumption of fructose in the diet may lead to spatial memory problems, according to a new study with rats from Georgia State University.

Rodents fed a diet where fructose represented 60 per cent of calories ingested during the day were found to perform poorly in tests of memory, compared to rodents fed a control diet, say findings in the journal Neurobiology of Learning and Memory.

The researchers, led by Marise Parent, suggest their findings are relevant to humans, and nod towards the use of fructose-containing sweeteners used by the food industry. Table sugar (sucrose) contains 50 per cent fructose and 50 per cent glucose, while high-fructose corn syrup (HFCS 55) contains 55 per cent fructose and 42 per cent glucose.

“Fructose, in many forms, is added to countless foods including carbonated beverages, fruit products, baked goods, cereals, and dairy products,” wrote lead author Amy Ross. “Indeed, North Americans would be greatly challenged to purchase processed foods not containing some form of fructose.”

Commenting on the applicability of the results to humans, Ross and her co-workers noted: “Although deriving 60 per cent of calories from fructose produces pathology in rodents that is similar to that experienced by humans, the level consumed is outside the current range of the human diet.

“Notably, determining what concentration would be comparable between humans and rats is difficult, given that a rat is expected to metabolize fructose at a different rate than a human and because rats typically require higher doses of drugs than humans to observe an effect.”

Study details

Parent and her research team divided Sprague-Dawley rats into two groups, one fed a diet where fructose represented 60 per cent of calories ingested during the day, and the other was fed standard rat chow containing 60 per cent vegetable starch.

“Rats are an excellent animal model to study the effects of fructose intake because their metabolism of fructose closely resembles that of humans,” explained the researchers. “The present research focused on male rats, given that men are the greatest consumers of fructose.”

The rats were placed in a pool of water to test their ability to learn to find a submerged platform, which allowed them to get out of the water. Two days later, the animals were returned to the pool with no platform present to see if the rats could remember to swim to the platform’s location.

“What we discovered is that the fructose diet doesn’t affect their ability to learn,” said Parent. “But they can’t seem to remember as well where the platform was when you take it away. They swam more randomly than rats fed a control diet.”

Commenting on a potential mechanism, the researchers note that fructose, unlike glucose, is processed almost exclusively by the liver, and produces an excessive amount of triglycerides, which may interfere with insulin signaling in the brain, and affect the brain’s ability to adapt based on new experiences.

Results were similar in adolescent rats, added Parent, but it is unclear whether the effects of high fructose consumption are permanent.

“The bottom line is that we were meant to have an apple a day as our source of fructose,” said Parent said. “And now, we have fructose in almost everything.”

Research is ongoing in Parent’s lab with current research looking at the intake of fish oil on triglycerides increases and memory deficits.

The Codex Alimentarius Commission (CAC) concluded a week-long meeting and adopted more than 30 new international standards, codes of practice and guidelines to improve worldwide food safety and protect the health of consumers.

New standards adopted by the Commission include:

Reduction of acrylamide in food

The Commission approved measures for reducing the formation of acrylamide in food. The code of practice will provide national and local authorities, manufacturers and others with guidance to prevent and reduce formation of acrylamide in potato products during all phases of the production process. The guidance includes strategies for raw materials, the addition of other ingredients; and food processing and heating. The chemical acrylamide, first identified in food in 2002, is produced during frying, roasting and baking of carbohydrate-rich food such as French fries, potato crisps, coffee, biscuits, pastries and breads. Acrylamide is considered a possible human carcinogen.
Reduction of contamination with polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons.

The Commission adopted the first guidelines for reducing polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAH) intake through final food preparation. Because smoking and direct drying processes are used both in industry and in private households, the guidance can also form the basis of consumer education programmes. Parts of PAH are possible human carcinogens formed during the combustion of fuel both in the smoking and in the direct drying processes involved in the preparation of food.

Prevention of Ochratoxin A contamination in coffee

The Commission adopted guidance to enable coffee-producing countries to develop and implement their own national programmes for the prevention and reduction of Ochratoxin A (OTA) contamination. OTA is a fungal toxin also considered a possible human carcinogen.
Powdered follow-up formulae

The Commission adopted criteria for salmonella and other bacteria in powdered follow-up formulae for children six months of age or older and for special medical purposes for young children. A bacterium of special concern is E. sakazakii, for which Codex adopted specific criteria for powdered formula for infants (0 to 6 months) in 2008. The Commission decided that in countries with particular risk for E. sakazakii from consumption of follow-up formulae (i.e. countries with substantial populations of immunocompromised babies) similar criteria for E. sakazakii could be introduced for follow-up formula as for powdered formula for infants.

Follow-up formulae should only be used for the intended target population. Unfortunately, they are often consumed by babies younger than six months of age. The standard stresses the need to address such product misuse issues through education campaigns and training.

Listeria monocytogenes in ready-to-eat food

The Commission adopted parameters for microbiological testing and environmental monitoring for Listeria monocytogenes in ready-to-eat food. A maximum level was set for certain food products where the bacteria cannot grow, while in ready-to-eat products where growth is possible, no Listeria monocytogenes will be allowed. The parameters will help producers control and prevent contamination of ready-to-eat foods with this bacterium that can result in listeriosis, a potentially fatal disease. While healthy people rarely contract listeriosis, it can cause miscarriages and stillbirths, as well as serious and sometimes fatal infections in those with weakened immune systems, such as infants, the elderly and persons with HIV infection or undergoing chemotherapy.

The Commission also adopted regional standards for ginseng products, fermented soybean paste and gochujang.

“The standards and guidelines adopted this week will make a positive impact on the lives of people around the world,” said CAC Chairperson Karen Hulebak. “The Commission is working faster than ever before to address the most pressing food safety challenges we face.”

Ezzeddine Boutrif, FAO Director, Nutrition and Consumer Protection Division, noted that Codex membership now represents 99% of the world’s population. “Applying Codex standards and guidelines are an important part of ensuring that consumers in every part of the world can be protected from unsafe food,” he said.

The Commission also launched new work projects, among them establishing maximum levels for melamine in food and feed. In the last few years, high levels of melamine have been added illegally to food and feed products, causing illness and death. Because it has many industrial uses, melamine may be found in trace amounts in the food chain due to its presence in the environment. Setting maximum limits will help governments differentiate between unavoidable melamine occurrence and the deliberate adulteration of food and feed.

Other new work proposals adopted by the Commission include:

• principles and guidelines to assist governments in the development and operation of comprehensive national food control systems that protect the health of consumers and ensure fair practices in the food trade;
• practices to control viruses in food, especially noroviruses (NoV) and hepatitis A (HAV) in fresh produce, mulluscan shell fish and ready-to-eat food;
• prevention of aflatoxin (toxic substances produced by moulds and known to cause cancer in animals) contamination of Brazil nuts; and
• setting maximum levels and defining sampling plans for Fumonisins, (toxic substances produced by fungi) in maize and maize products.

“We welcome the participation of more developing countries in the meeting this year which reflects global awareness of food safety issue and the impact of Codex Trust Fund,” said Dr Jørgen Schlundt, Director of WHO’s Department of Food Safety and Zoonoses.

Approximately 500 people, representing 125 countries, participated in the Commission meetings. Karen Hulebak of the United States of America was re-elected Chairperson; Knud Østergaard of Denmark, Sanjay Dave of India and Ben Manyindo of Nigeria were re-elected Vice-Chairpersons.