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Frankfurt (Germany) (AFP) – The German distribution giant Lidl announced on Tuesday that it would stop “unhealthy” foods targeting children, before banning, for its own brands, the playful packaging of food products intended to seduce toddlers.
The discounter wants to promote “marketing for healthy and sustainable nutrition for children,” a statement said.
From this year, Lidl will no longer advertise “unhealthy foods” to children, announced the group, which presents itself as “the first German food retailer to implement a corresponding recommendation from the World Health Organization ( WHO)”.
The next step will consist “by the end of 2025” in banning from the packaging of its own food brands the colourful, playful visuals, illustrated with characters appreciated by young children when the product does not meet “the WHO criteria for a healthy diet. healthy”.
This measure will be applied “with the exception of promotional items for Christmas, Easter and Halloween”, it is specified.
The Lidl supermarket chain, ranked 4th largest retail group in the world by Deloitte, reaches millions of customers every day in Germany through 3,200 branches.
Its measures to offer its customers “conscious nutrition” also aim to widen the range of vegetable proteins and increase the proportion of whole grains, all through its own brand products.
Since 2021, the company owned by the Schwarz group has been labeling all of its own brands step by step with the “Nutri-Score” comprising a five-level scale with colored letters according to the nutritional profile of a food.
The initiative was welcomed by the NGO Foodwatch, which called on its competitor, the German distributor Aldi, to follow suit.
© 2023 AFP