Nutritional quality and level of processing of food items broadcasted on Italian television in advertisements targeted to children

Abstract

This study evaluates the nutritional quality and level of processing of food and beverage products advertised on television channels most watched by children, in Italy. Data were collected over 20 non-consecutive days from the five top channels in Italy. A total of 209 food items were analysed using the Nutri-Score and the NOVA classification. Additionally, compliance with nutritional criteria established by the World Health Organisation (WHO) and the EU-PLEDGE was assessed. Results indicate a high proportion of energy-dense and low nutritional quality foods, with 68% falling into less favourable Nutri-Score categories (C, D, and E), and 61% classified as ultra-processed by NOVA classification. When applying WHO and PLEDGE criteria, 71% and 56% of products, respectively, did not meet nutritional standards. This study underscores the low prevalence of nutritionally adequate products in food advertisements targeting children on Italian television, despite differences found based on methodological variations.

Keywords:

• Advertising
• labelling
• children
• Italy
• food
• nutritional value

Author contributions

V.G. and D.N. contributed to the conception and design of the study; F.R. and C.R. collected and extracted the data; C.R., V.G. and D.M. analysed the data; V.G., D.N., M.D., D.A., and D.M. contributed to the assembly of the paper and data interpretation; M.D., D.A. helped in literature review. All authors have read and agreed to the published version of the manuscript.

Ethics statements

No ethical approval was required.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Data availability statement

Data will be made available upon request to the corresponding author.

Additional information

Funding

This research received no external funding.