News
SUGAR SMART NEWS AROUND THE UK
Nominate winners for a Children's Food Award
At our first ever Children's Food Summit, we will be rewarding the heroes and recognising the villains. Now's your chance to get involved and place a nomination for those deserving of a Yummy or a Yucky award.
14/04/2023
The Children’s Food Summit will be taking place on the 16 May 2023 in Leeds where we are delighted to be rewarding the unsung heroes of children’s food – the determined campaigners, advertising heroes, unshakeable political advocates, and local innovators. With your help, we will also be recognising the commercial villains that play such a prominent role in shaping children’s food.
We have 5 awards that are open to the public:
Yummy award for best local initiative improving children’s food
This award recognises local initiatives to prioritise children’s health and defend against the flood of unhealthy food targetting children. This could be through local campaigns to take the spotlight off junk food, initiatives to improve food education and skills, or to increase children’s access to healthy and sustainable food. This is a category for initiatives operating at a local level, be it run by a local authority, school, grassroots or community group.
Yummy award for a political figure championing children’s food
This award recognises politicians and policy makers who have stuck their neck out to improve children’s food, through their own initiatives, lobbying for regulations and investment and speaking out in public. Nominations can include MPs, peers, metropolitan mayors, or leaders and politicians in the devolved nations.
Yucky award for pester power
This award recognises techniques used by companies to appeal to children and encourage them to pester their parents for unhealthy food or drinks. For example, unhealthy food marketed to children with free toys; cartoon characters/social media influencers advertising the unhealthy food; and placement in kids’ games, events and activities or on clothing. You can nominate a particular marketing campaign or product doing this, or a company consistently using these techniques to appeal to children. For more information about pester power and examples, check out our Pester Power or Parent Power? report.
Yucky award for the most misleading ‘health’ claim
This award recognises companies using techniques to make food and drinks seem healthier than they are through questionable marketing, packaging and labelling claims. For example, sugary breakfast cereals claiming to be ‘high in fibre’, or a fruity yoghurt drink claiming to have ‘1 of your five a day.’ You can nominate specific food and drink examples or a company that consistently misleads parents and young people on a range of its products.
Yucky award for the worst children’s food commercial villain
This award recognises companies or industry bodies that are putting profit before young people, standing in the way of progress on children’s food or actively obstructing children accessing healthier food.
All nominations must be for work that has taken place in the past 2 years for activity taking place in the UK. Winners will be announced publicly at the summit and will be notified in advance of the summit.
