Chile bans peddling of toys with kids' meal
Source: Agencies |
August 3, 2012, Friday
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A NEW law in Chile aims to take some of the fun out of fast food by forcing McDonald's, Burger King, KFC and other eateries to stop including toys and other goodies with children's meals.
The companies are still using toys to draw in Chile's increasingly chubby children more than a month after the ban took effect on June 7, Senator Giudo Girardi said as he filed a formal complaint on Wednesday with the health ministry.
"These businesses know that this food damages the health of children and they know that the law is in effect. They're using fraudulent and abusive means," he said.
The complaint also targets makers of cereal, popsicles and other products that attract children with toys, crayons or stickers, as well as markets that sell the food.
If Chile's health ministry upholds his allegations, the companies could be forced to remove the goodies or face nominal fines.
Girardi said he wrote the law because nearly a quarter of Chile's 6-year-olds now suffer from childhood obesity - and that its passage came despite seven years of industry lobbying.
"These corporations threatened that if the law was approved there would be no more money for children's foundations, the sick, or athletes, but we were finally able to create a great alliance between civil society and scientists to defeat these lobbyists," the senator said.
McDonald's Happy Meals - marketed as "Cajitas Felices" in Spanish - have been a major draw for 4-year-old Florencia Moraga, who was playing with her Ice Age movie toys on Wednesday with her father Ricardo at a downtown Santiago restaurant.
"I loooove McDonald's because of the toys in the Happy Meal!" Florencia said.
Moraga said he takes his daughter every two weeks to the fast-food chain, but would not come back if she becomes overweight.
The Washington-based Center for Science in the Public Interest sued McDonald's over using toys to market its food to children in 2010, but the claim was dismissed in April. San Francisco banned restaurants last year from providing toys along with meals high in fat, salt, and sugar, but McDonald's has continued providing toys there by charging consumers a small fee for the goodies. A similar measure was defeated in New York.
The companies are still using toys to draw in Chile's increasingly chubby children more than a month after the ban took effect on June 7, Senator Giudo Girardi said as he filed a formal complaint on Wednesday with the health ministry.
"These businesses know that this food damages the health of children and they know that the law is in effect. They're using fraudulent and abusive means," he said.
The complaint also targets makers of cereal, popsicles and other products that attract children with toys, crayons or stickers, as well as markets that sell the food.
If Chile's health ministry upholds his allegations, the companies could be forced to remove the goodies or face nominal fines.
Girardi said he wrote the law because nearly a quarter of Chile's 6-year-olds now suffer from childhood obesity - and that its passage came despite seven years of industry lobbying.
"These corporations threatened that if the law was approved there would be no more money for children's foundations, the sick, or athletes, but we were finally able to create a great alliance between civil society and scientists to defeat these lobbyists," the senator said.
McDonald's Happy Meals - marketed as "Cajitas Felices" in Spanish - have been a major draw for 4-year-old Florencia Moraga, who was playing with her Ice Age movie toys on Wednesday with her father Ricardo at a downtown Santiago restaurant.
"I loooove McDonald's because of the toys in the Happy Meal!" Florencia said.
Moraga said he takes his daughter every two weeks to the fast-food chain, but would not come back if she becomes overweight.
The Washington-based Center for Science in the Public Interest sued McDonald's over using toys to market its food to children in 2010, but the claim was dismissed in April. San Francisco banned restaurants last year from providing toys along with meals high in fat, salt, and sugar, but McDonald's has continued providing toys there by charging consumers a small fee for the goodies. A similar measure was defeated in New York.
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