• June 14, 2007

The Kellogg Company announced yesterday that it will phase out advertising its products to children under age 12 unless the foods meet specific nutrition guidelines for calories, sugar, fat and sodium, The New York Times is reporting.

Kellogg also announced that it would stop using licensed characters or branded toys to promote foods unless the products meet the nutrition guidelines, the paper says.

The voluntary changes, which will be put in place over the next year and a half, will apply to about half of the products that Kellogg currently markets to children worldwide, including Froot Loops and Apple Jacks cereals and some varieties of Pop Tarts, reports the Times.

President/CEO David Mackay tells the paper those products would either be reformulated to meet the nutrition guidelines or would no longer be advertised to children.

"It is a big change," Mackay is quoted as saying. "Where we can make the changes without negatively impacting the taste of the product, we will."

But if the product cannot be reformulated, Mackay says, the company will either market it to an older audience or stop advertising it.