Today was the first full day of sessions and posters at the American Public Health Association Annual Meeting in Philadelphia. Our Spectrum team spread through the conference and heard some interesting things, including:
Menu Labeling and Policy
In a session on menu labeling in New York City, Portland, and Seattle, research and policies were compared. The Spectrum blog has previously written about research conducted in NYC. The session started off with a discussion about why menu labeling is important; James Krieger asked the room to guess how many calories are in a variety of fast food meals, ranging from Burger King to Pizza Hut. The Pizza Hut Cream Chicken Alfredo Pesto Pasta has a startling 3,270 calories per serving. That's nearly double the recommended calories for adults in an entire day.
There are currently 16 jurisdictions that have passed and/ or are currently implementing menu labeling initiatives. Additionally, the health reform legislation passed by the U.S. House of Representatives on Saturday evening includes a menu labeling provision, which would preempt any state and local legislation. The provision would only require calorie information to be posted, unlike some jurisdictions where fat, sodium, and other nutritional information is made available.
Antibiotics and Livestock Production
In a session about antibiotic use in livestock, several presenters discussed recent findings and consequences of antibiotic resistance in pork production. Dr. Tara Smith from the University of Iowa outlined startling statistics about the prevalence of MRSA in Concentrated Animal Feeding Operations (CAFO). For example, 100 percent of 9 to 12 week old piglets studied were positive for MRSA, or Methicillin-Resistant Staphylococcus Aureus, a bacterial infection that is highly resistant to some antibiotics.
In antibiotic-free pork production, the infection rate was non-existent. It is unknown if MRSA is transmitted into pork products during the slaughtering, processing or handling phases of production, yet 9 percent of pork products purchased by consumers contain MRSA. Dr. Smith concluded that current surveillance programs may be inadequate to fully understand the transmission and consequences of MRSA infections.
Regulation of Food Marketing to Children
In the age of unprecedented rates of childhood obesity and an intense discussion around the advertising of junk food to children, the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation along with health policy experts from The National Policy & Legal Analysis Network to Prevent Childhood Obesity (NPLAN) and leading analysts from Harvard and Yale led a session on the regulation of food marketing to children. Marketing junk food to children remains big business - prevalent in schools, retail/grocery stores, across multiple platforms in media and even on school buses and baby bottles. And it works - children all over can name their junk food favorites and articulate their preferences for sugary beverages and high-fat foods.
So, why are we still advertising to children? Easy. The first amendment guarantees the right to free (and commercial) speech. While strides have been made to regulate advertising directly to children, the first amendment and the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) continue to protect commercial speech in many cases.
The speakers suggested tackling this from another angle - regulation of product placement in grocery stores and on food vendor displays. Jennifer Pomeranz from the Rudd Center for Food Policy and Obesity at Yale University discussed a number of options, including moving products to the top shelves, requiring food labels face outward, removing junk foods from the checkout aisle and sequestering calorie-dense nutrient-poor food to certain far-reaching aisles of the store. None of these constitutes a violation of free speech and some have a proven track record. Shoppers who use self-checkout aisles without junk food displays typically purchase about 7,200 less calories than their counterparts waiting in checkout lines with candy, chips and soda at their fingertips.
The speakers challenged the Federal Trade Commission to re-examine their authority over the regulation of food marketing to children and urged the public health experts in the room to work with local, state and national government to promote stricter regulation of food placement in stores as one way to help curb the obesity epidemic.
Our Spectrum team is continuing to live tweet. Make sure to follow us: @Allisonrbrown, @Kate_Morrison, and @Plourde.
Tags: ftc, Health Policy, Public Affairs, Public Health, Research, Technology
