Child-directed food marketing in urban South African supermarkets: which techniques are used and what type of foods are promoted?

Objective: To examine the extent and types of marketing techniques used on the packaging of child-directed foods sold in South African supermarkets and to assess the nutritional quality of these foods.Design: Cross-sectional observational study in which child-directed pre-packaged food and beverages were identified and photographed.Setting: Four retail outlets in South Africa (three supermarkets in Pretoria and one online store).Outcome measures: Nutrient content, labelling information, and child-directed marketing techniques were extracted from high-quality photographs. Foods were categorised into predefined food groups, and the INFORMAS stepwise approach guided systematic sampling. Nutrient profiling models from the draft food labelling Regulation (R.3337) were applied to determine nutritional quality. Descriptive statistics were used to quantify the presence and type of marketing techniques and to compare their use on healthy versus less healthy foods.Results: A total of 516 foods were included in the study, of which 66% were classified as less healthy. The food categories contributing the highest proportion of child-directed products were confectionery (36% of foods), cereal and cereal products (15% of foods), dairy (13% of foods) and beverages (9.3% of foods). The most common marketing technique used was promotional characters (95% of foods), followed by claims (63.3% of foods) and premium offers (28.9% of foods).Conclusion: Most child-directed foods available in South African supermarkets were classified as less healthy and frequently used multiple marketing techniques. These findings highlight the need for comprehensive food marketing and labelling regulations that better support healthy food choices for children.