Some 170 million children are overweight worldwide while one in eight people in the world are estimated to suffer from chronic hunger. ICCR is currently engaging many of the largest publically-held food, beverage, restaurant, retail, and media companies to highlight the risks and opportunities they face around the public health issues of obesity and undernutrition.
Rates of obesity for children in the U.S. are more than double (and for adolescents, quadruple) what they were in 1980, a reality that has profound implications for business and society. Food marketing influences children’s food selections and diet and for this reason has been highly scrutinized by high-level officials, regulators, and civil society institutions in the last decade. Marketing unhealthy food and beverage products to youth exposes companies to significant and growing regulatory, reputational, and even litigation risks which can have bearing on financial performance. At the same time, companies that promote healthier foods are poised to benefit from rapidly increasing consumer interest in nutrition and health.
ICCR members encourage companies to create strong nutrition policies, improve the nutritional profiles of their product portfolios, market food products responsibly, increase access to healthy choices, and communicate clearly with consumers about the nutritional content of their offerings.
Featured ICCR Initiatives
Food Equity. The COVID-19 pandemic has reinforced the need and demand for affordable and accessible healthy products, but it has also exacerbated the adverse economic and health impacts experienced by Black, Latinx, and Indigenous communities in the U.S. ICCR members are asking food and beverage companies, restaurant brands, and retailers to examine how their business models, operations and value chains may directly or indirectly contribute to racial inequities, and how they are working to create more equitable and resilient systems that benefit workers, the company, shareholders, and communities at large
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Featured Resources
Access to Nutrition's 2022 US Index. The US Index is a benchmark comparing the commitments and performance of the eleven largest food manufacturers active in the US to deliver healthy, affordable food and beverages enabling consumers to reach healthier diets and to prevent hunger.
ATNI Spotlight on Lobbying 2022. Benchmarks the nutrition-related lobbying Commitments, Management systems, and Disclosure of food and beverage manufacturers
Commercial determinants of health. A new Lancet Series on the commercial determinants of health provides recommendations and frameworks to foster a better understanding of the diversity of the commercial world, and potential pathways to health harms or benefits.
Healthy Food Access. View policy initiatives at the state/local level; see which states are currently working on policies to broaden healthy food access.
National Black Food and Justice Alliance (NBFJA). Tool that tracks Black Farmers and Black food producers across the country. The Black Food Map offers details about who is growing the food, where, how to contact them, what they’re farming, and more.
The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation: Committed to tackling one of the most urgent threats to the health of our children and families—childhood obesity.
UConn Rudd Center for Food Policy and Obesity: The Rudd Center works to improve the world’s diet, prevent obesity, and reduce weight stigma.
