Advertising of Unhealthy Foods from a Scientific Perspective

With reference to the sector of food and beverage preparations, three nutritional categories and ingredients—sugars, salt, and milkfat—have been and still are used for enhancing taste, palatability, and satiety, with a few exceptions only when speaking of final products. However, current marketing and advertising strategies are oriented towards the representation of foods containing low-calorie sweeteners, low-sodium salts, and unrefined vegetable oils. The main reason is that these typologies are represented as unhealthy food ingredients with a strong correlation between excessive intake and different diseases. The aim of this chapter is to discuss advertising-related aspects for each of the three above-mentioned food categories: sugars, salt, and milkfat. In general, the increase of sold units with consequent decrease of production costs is directly linked to technical features and commercial factors at the same time. Secondly, the conversion of technical and non-technical information on food labels in a practical and comprehensible marketing/advertising way for food and beverage consumers is not a simple work. Certain problems should be avoided with a careful design (promotion of useful factors, elimination of difficult concepts). Moreover, the continuous improvement of food and beverage products and services from time to time depends on the success on the market and also on the attention of the consumer. Nutrition and health claims for sugars, salt, and milkfat are studied in detail with the aim of clarifying the current situation for ‘unhealthy foods’.