German Minister of Agriculture Cem Özdemir wants to limit advertising of foods high in sugar, fat and salt targeting children. According to his proposal, he should not appear on radio broadcasts and television stations aimed at children or on Internet platforms such as YouTube, according to portal Zeit Online.

Advertisements for food deemed dangerous can only run from 11pm to 6am. “We have to ensure that children can grow up healthier,” said Özdemir, a Green Party politician. He emphasized that he did not want to impose a complete ban on food advertisements such as sweets or salty snacks, he only wanted to limit advertisements aimed at children. According to his proposal, it should not appear in children’s magazines or on billboards near schools or swimming pools. He wants to follow the recommendations of the World Health Organization (WHO) when determining what foods are unhealthy.

Zeit Online recalls that the current German government coalition has signed an agreement to limit advertising of foods high in sugar, salt and fat aimed at children in its coalition agreement.

Özdemir’s proposal was supported by pediatricians, the consumer organization Verbraucherzentrale Bundesverband or the German Obesitytological Society, which warned that childhood obesity is a widespread health problem and inappropriate food advertising is one of the contributing factors to it.

Özdemir’s plan was not liked by the liberal FDP, which is in government along with the Greens and Social Democrats, or by the opposition Christian Democratic Union (CDU). According to Steffen Bilger of the CDU, Özdemir “paved the way for state egoism, bureaucracy and paternalism”. The head of the Social Democrats, Saskia Eskenová, also has doubts. He said that advertisements should not mislead in terms of the effects of the products being promoted on health, but according to him, it was primarily parents who had to protect their children from unhealthy foods.