Canadian children see thousands of digital ads for unhealthy food every year: report

A customer holds a tray containing food at a fast food outlet in Toronto on October 23, 2012. (Chris Young/The Canadian Press)

Children in Canada are exposed to more than 4,000 ads for food on their mobile devices every year, with the vast majority promoting unhealthy products, according to a new report.

The study published Thursday found that children see unhealthy food advertising throughout their daily lives, including on television and digital devices, on product packaging and around schools.

Even in Quebec, which prohibits commercial advertising targeting children, young people are still being exposed to ads for junk food, fast food and sugary drinks, said study co-author Lana Vanderlee, Canada Research Chair in healthy food policy at Université Laval in Quebec City.

“The magnitude of the problems that are caused by these unhealthy food environments is pretty significant,” she said in an interview. “The report shows that we have some serious and significant problems, and that governments need to take this problem a little bit more seriously.”

The report by INFORMAS Canada, a network of food environment researchers from across the country, compiles several studies looking at food marketing, quality, labelling and cost. Together, the research points to several barriers to healthy eating, ranging from the availability of sugary drinks in schools to the high price of nutritious food.

The study on marketing found that children see around 37 food and beverage ads per day, while teenagers see about 44 ads per day, mostly for unhealthy products.

In Quebec, the only province that bans commercial advertising directed at children younger than 13, young people see fewer ads designed to appeal to them, said Monique Potvin Kent, professor at the University of Ottawa’s school of epidemiology and public health.

But that doesn’t mean they’re not seeing food ads at all, she said. Where a child in Toronto might see a McDonald’s ad featuring a Happy Meal, a McDonald’s ad in Montreal might feature someone in an office eating a breakfast wrap. “It’s not a child setting, it’s not a child product, but it’s still a McDonald’s ad,” she said.

The researchers are calling on the federal government to prohibit marketing of unhealthy food through all forms of media to which children are exposed. Vanderlee pointed to the United Kingdom, where a ban on junk food ads on television and online will take effect in October to fight childhood obesity.

“It’s very hard for a parent to compete with 37 messages for unhealthy food and beverages per day,” Potvin Kent said.

The report also found that 82 per cent of schools and 99 per cent of hospitals reported selling sugary drinks on a regular basis — places that people think of as “promoting health,” Vanderlee said. The researchers want Ottawa to impose a levy on all sugary drinks, as Newfoundland did in 2022.

The federal government has recently taken steps to improve labelling on unhealthy food. Starting next Jan. 1, Health Canada will require labels on the front of packages for foods that are high in salt, sugar and saturated fat.

But the report points out that many packaged foods already display various nutrition claims, including that they’re high in fibre or have no added sugar. The researchers found that 45 per cent of products with nutrition claims will also have to display a front-of-package warning under the new rules, which could be confusing for customers.

“It’s just a bit of mixed messaging that consumers are going to be receiving,” Vanderlee said. “It’s hard to figure out what’s healthy and what’s not healthy.”

The report also delves into the rising cost of food, pointing out that food prices in Canada increased by 9.2 per cent between 2015 and 2019, and again by 14.8 per cent between January 2021 and December 2022.

One of the studies found that the price of healthy food varies widely across the country. In Manitoba, researchers found, the average weekly cost of nutritious food for a family of four is $317, rising to $418 in Newfoundland.

Vanderlee said unhealthy diets are responsible for $15 billion annually in direct and indirect health-care costs in Canada, and governments should focus on making healthy food more affordable and accessible. Between 2014 and 2019, more than 10 per cent of youth and 25 per cent of adults in Canada were living with obesity, according to public health data cited in the report.

“We need to develop policies, regulations, legislation and programs that create environments that make it easier to make the healthier choice,” said Manuel Arango, vice-president of policy and advocacy for the Heart and Stroke Foundation, who provided feedback on the report. “I think it should be a wake-up call for people in Canada that their food environment is not as healthy as it could be.”

INFORMAS Canada is funded by the Canadian Institutes of Health Research.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Feb. 13, 2025.