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标题：The Food Industry and Self-Regulation: Standards to Promote Success and to Avoid Public Health Failures
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作者：Lisa L. Sharma ; Stephen P. Teret ; Kelly D. Brownell 等
期刊名称：American journal of public health
印刷版ISSN：0090-0036
出版年度：2010
卷号：100
期号：2
页码：240-246
DOI：10.2105/AJPH.2009.160960
语种：English
出版社：American Public Health Association
摘要：Threatened by possible government regulation and critical public opinion, industries often undertake self-regulatory actions, issue statements of concern for public welfare, and assert that self-regulation is sufficient to protect the public. The food industry has made highly visible pledges to curtail children's food marketing, sell fewer unhealthy products in schools, and label foods in responsible ways. Ceding regulation to industry carries opportunities but is highly risky. In some industries (e.g., tobacco), self-regulation has been an abject failure, but in others (e.g., forestry and marine fisheries), it has been more successful. We examined food industry self-regulation in the context of other self-regulatory successes and failures and defined 8 standards that should be met if self-regulation is to be effective. Alarmed by links between poor diet and disease, as well as striking increases in obesity, policymakers, the public, and health professionals have challenged food industry practices.^{1 – 3} Although many forces contribute to obesity and poor diet, food industry behaviors such as marketing unhealthy foods to children, promoting large portions and between-meal snacks, and exploiting schools for commercial gain have raised calls for government regulation and paved the path for actions such as requiring calorie labeling in restaurants.^{4 , 5} Industry practices affecting children have raised special concern, particularly regarding food marketing.⁶ According to a recent report by the Federal Trade Commission (FTC), businesses spent $9.6 billion marketing food and beverages in 2007. Of this, nearly $1.7 billion was spent on marketing specifically targeted to children and adolescents, most of which promotes items such as sugared breakfast cereals, fast food, and soft drinks.⁷ The average young person views more than 40 000 television advertisements per year. Young people are also exposed to promotional messages via the Internet, magazines, and video games.⁸ This avalanche of marketing persuades children to prefer, request, and consume calorie-dense, nutrient-poor food and has triggered urgent calls for change.⁹ In response to public outcry and calls for government intervention, the major food industry players acted as other businesses have in the past: they pledged to adopt self-regulatory initiatives. Such voluntary actions are characteristic of threatened industries and typically involve promises to follow self-generated rules and standards. There is a long history of such pledges across industries as disparate as tobacco, alcohol, motion pictures, forestry, and marine fisheries. Self-regulatory pledges by the food industry are relatively new and may, as industry claims, benefit public health, or they may be self-serving and deceptive, stall needed government action, and protect business as usual.^{10 – 14} The food industry is in full self-regulatory mode and since 2006 has issued a series of highly publicized pledges. Both risks and opportunities are embedded in this environment, and much is at stake. It is instructive to examine how other industries have approached self-regulation and to define the conditions under which the public's interest is protected or harmed. Here we discuss existing self-regulatory pledges made by the food industry, note their strengths and weaknesses, and evaluate successful and unsuccessful attempts at self-regulation in other industries. We examined self-regulation in 2 industries that, like the food industry, manufacture products whose consumption is linked to health concerns (tobacco and alcohol), along with 2 quite different industries (marine fisheries and forestry), which have developed extensive self-regulatory systems and addressed governance issues, with sufficient history to draw conclusions about impact. We propose 8 standards for self-regulation that we believe the food industry must follow if their pledges (1) are to be considered good-faith efforts, (2) hold out hope for protecting the public's health, and (3) can be considered alternatives to government regulation. These standards, listed in Table 1 , are derived from knowledge to date on food industry self-regulation and lessons learned from self-regulatory successes and failures in other industries. These standards are intended to maximize the likelihood that self-regulation will incorporate transparency, meaningful objectives and benchmarks, accountability and objective evaluation, and oversight. TABLE 1 Proposed Standards for Self-Regulatory Activities of the Food Industry Aim Standard Transparency Transparent self-regulatory standards created by a combination of scientists (not paid by industry) and representatives of leading nongovernmental organizations, parties involved in global governance (e.g., World Health Organization, United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization), and industry No one party given disproportionate power or voting authority Meaningful objectives and benchmarks Specific codes of acceptable behaviors based on scientifically justified criteria Predefined benchmarks to ensure the success of self-regulation Accountability and objective evaluation Mandatory public reporting of adherence to codes, including progress toward achievement of full compliance with pledges and attainment of key benchmarks Built-in and transparent procedures for outside parties to register objections to self-regulatory standards or their enforcement Objective evaluation of self-regulatory benchmarks by credible outside groups not funded by industry to assess health, economic, and social outcomes Periodic assessments/audits to determine compliance and outcomes Oversight Possible oversight by an appropriate global regulatory or health body (e.g., World Health Organization) Open in a separate window