A French consumer watchdog has slammed ten popular children’s dairy products, warning they’re overloaded with sugar, salt, fat, and ultra-processed ingredients, putting young consumers’ health at serious risk.
In a statement released this week, Foodwatch, a French consumer group organisation, slammed ten dairy products marketed to children.
Among the products are several popular names: Babybel Mini Rolls, Petits Filous, Smarties yoghurts, Kiri Goûter, P’tit Louis, Danonino, P’tite Danette, and Nesquik Petit, among others.
According to Foodwatch, all of them fail to meet the World Health Organization’s (WHO) nutritional standards.
"None of these unbalanced products pass the WHO’s nutrition criteria crash test," Foodwatch explains.
The warning comes as public health experts continue to raise concerns about the impact of ultra-processed foods on children’s health.
According to Santé Publique France (French Public Health Agency), excessive consumption of those products contributes to childhood obesity and increases the risk of type 2 diabetes, cardiovascular diseases, and some cancers.
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'Misleading marketing tactics'
Foodwatch is also calling out what it describes as "misleading marketing" tactics.
The packaging of these dairy products often features colorful designs, cartoon characters, games, and puzzles – clearly aimed at children.
But they also target parents, the group notes, with reassuring labelling like "contains calcium and vitamin D for bone growth" or "no artificial colors or flavors."
"These products are not healthy, yet they’re marketed as if they are," the organisation warns.
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In late September, Foodwatch, along with over 100 other organisations, urged the French government to eventually release its long-overdue national strategy for food, nutrition and climate, which has been delayed for more than two years.
One of the expected measures was the ban on advertising unhealthy food to children.
But according to the watchdog, "the outgoing government has backtracked on the ban measure, relying instead on the self-regulation by the companies, which does not work as Santé Publique France has already pointed out."
In response, Foodwatch launched an online petition, which had gathered nearly 68,000 signatures as of Tuesday morning.
