In 2004 the Codex Alimentarius Commission adopted a set of Guidelines for the Use of Nutrition and Health Claims on Food. Codex then requested its Committee on Food Labelling (CCFL) “to consider the need for developing a definition of advertising as related to health and nutrition claims.” This development comes amidst calls from the World Health Orgnization(WHO) for "action to reduce marketing pressure, particularly on children" .

Working through the World Federation of Advertisers (WFA) a number of major private sector players in the food service industry including IH&RA have lobbied against the development of such a definition. The position of the industry group has been that there is no rationale for the development of an international definition of advertising as related to nutrition and health claims, on the grounds - among other reasons - that definitions of advertising are best regulated at national level.

However, at the recent Ottawa meeting CCFL decided to press ahead with work on this defintion, tentatively drafted as follows:

The good news is that this changed wording closely reflects the industry position in that it includes:

1. The condition that this definition should only apply to “nutrition and health claims in relation to the food and its ingredients”

2. A reference to the commercial ‘i.e. paid’ intent of advertising, thus ensuring that advertisers will not be accountable for representations for which they are not responsible (such as journalistic mentions, scientific reports, consumer-generated content, etc)

The exact wording will be checked in the final report. Through WFA, IH&RA will continue to follow developments at the Codex Alimentarius Commission level with regard to wording refinements.