Nutritional quality of food advertised on private free-to-air television channels of Buenos Aires City

Abstract

INTRODUCTION: The food industry uses television as a way of promoting its products. The objective was to evaluate the frequency and nutritional quality of food advertised on private free-to-air television channels in the Autonomous City of Buenos Aires. METHODS: A descriptive and cross-sectional study was conducted. Food advertisements on private free-to-air television channels were analyzed. They were recorded during weekdays and weekends from 8 am to 8 pm in August and September 2018. Nutritional quality was evaluated with the nutritional profiling system (NPS) used in Chilean Law N° 20606. RESULTS: The study analyzed 220 hours of television programming. A total of 484 food advertisements were identified, representing 12.8% of all advertisements, with a frequency of 2.2 ads per hour of programming. Sweets showed the highest frequency (28% of the ads), followed by sweet cookies (17%) and dehydrated soups (7%). According to the NPS, 55% of the food exceeded the energy limit, 56% the total sugars limit, 57% the saturated fat limit, and 20% the sodium limit. DISCUSSION: Food advertisements occupied one-tenth of the advertising space. More than half exceeded the limit of energy, total sugars and saturated fats according to the Chilean profiling system.