A recent UNICEF report ‘Feeding Profit: How Food Environments Are Failing Children’ (Sept 2025) highlights how growing access to ultra-processed foods, weak legal protections, and aggressive marketing are worsening unhealthy diets among children.
Key Findings of the Report
- About one in every five children (5–19 years) in the world is overweight.
- The problem is most common among children aged 5–9 years and 10–14 years.
- There has been a big increase in supermarkets, convenience stores, and hypermarkets, which has made junk food and sugary drinks more easily available.
- A UNICEF 2023 survey in eight South Asian countries showed that in schools, fast foods and soft drinks were more commonly found than fresh fruits and vegetables.
Weak Legal Protections
- Only 18% of 202 countries studied had mandatory nutrition standards for school meals.
- Only 19% countries imposed taxes on unhealthy foods and sugary beverages.
- Very few nations had comprehensive legal restrictions on marketing unhealthy foods to children.
- Lack of strong laws allows unchecked advertising across television, digital platforms, and outdoor media.
Why It Matters
- Rising childhood obesity poses long-term health risks such as diabetes, hypertension, and heart disease.
- Children are highly vulnerable to food marketing, shaping eating habits that last into adulthood.
- Poor dietary choices undermine investments in education and healthcare.
Policy Recommendations
- Strengthen Legal Frameworks: Mandatory nutrition standards for school meals. Taxes and price regulations on ultra-processed and sugary foods.
- Improve Food Environments: Ban/restrict junk food sales inside and near schools. Ensure availability of fruits, vegetables, and fresh meals in schools.
- Regulate Marketing: Limit advertisements of unhealthy foods across TV, digital media, and outdoor channels. Introduce front-of-pack labelling for consumer awareness.
- Promote Healthy Choices: Nutrition education in schools. Subsidies for healthier food options.
Conclusion
The UNICEF report shows that the global food environment is failing children, with unhealthy diets becoming the norm. India and other countries must adopt comprehensive policies, stricter regulation, and school-level nutrition reforms to curb childhood obesity and ensure healthier future generations.
