Child Obesity Bill Proposes Warning Labels
The POST association and the Association for the Prevention of Overweight have drafted a proposed law on protecting children from obesity, and citizens can submit comments until September 15, 2026.
The POST association and the Association for the Prevention of Overweight have drafted a proposed law on protecting children from obesity, and citizens can submit comments until September 15, 2026.
The proposed Law on the Protection of Children from Obesity and Health Labeling of Food Products has been prepared by two Croatian associations: the Association for Healthy Living POST and the Association for the Prevention of Overweight. The proposal introduces warning labels on food packaging and restricts marketing of unhealthy products aimed at children, as reported by Tonka Vuković for Hina, and carried by 24sata and Novi list.
According to data from the Croatian Institute of Public Health (HZJZ), as many as 36.1 percent of eight-year-olds in Croatia are overweight or obese. This places Croatia among the European countries with the highest rates of childhood obesity. Family medicine physician and one of the law's authors, Dražen Gorjanski, warns that obesity in children increases the risk of type 2 diabetes, high blood pressure, lipid metabolism disorders, and fatty liver disease, and also significantly impacts mental health, self-esteem, and social relationships.
The law does not ban any product but aims to better inform consumers. In practice, this means introducing simple warning labels on the front of packaging that would alert to high levels of sugar, salt, or saturated fats. In addition to labeling, the proposal addresses marketing aimed at the youngest. "The criteria are quite simple - whether the ad uses children's characters, cartoons, toys, games, influencers popular among children, children's language, or is shown in media and time slots primarily intended for children. These are criteria already applied in several countries," Gorjanski explained to Hina. The rules would also apply to social media platforms like TikTok and Instagram in the segment of promoting food to children, but would not regulate the general operation of these platforms.
The proposal also envisions gradually aligning school meals with new standards. Products with unfavorable nutritional profiles would not be part of the regular school offering. "Children won't go without snacks; the goal is for the offering to be nutritionally better, not poorer," Gorjanski emphasized. The nutritional quality criteria are based on the World Health Organization model for the European region and apply equally to all products, regardless of origin. "We don't assess whether a product is domestic or foreign, but its composition. Traditional products are not banned, but if they have an unfavorable nutritional profile according to objective criteria, the same rules apply to them as to all other products," he said, confirming that this could apply to kulen or pršut.
Gorjanski dismissed claims that the law introduces a tax on unhealthy food. "The law does not introduce a new tax. It only leaves the possibility for the government, if there are professional reasons and impact assessments, to consider fiscal measures in the future. That would require special decisions and additional analyses," he stated. A special section of the law addresses protecting children from advertisements promoting weight loss. "Children, especially girls, today grow up surrounded by contradictory messages. On one hand, they are exposed to ads encouraging consumption of hypercaloric products, and on the other, to messages that often promote extremely thin beauty ideals. The goal of the law is to protect children from both forms of harmful influence and to promote a healthy relationship with food and one's own body," Gorjanski pointed out.
Enforcement of the law will be overseen by the competent inspection authorities, and manufacturers and importers will need to comply with legal obligations. Gorjanski emphasizes that no law alone can solve the obesity problem, but he points to research published in The Lancet. That study covered more than 300,000 children in Chile and showed that a combination of warning labeling, marketing restrictions, and improving the food environment has a measurable positive effect. Until September 15, 2026, all interested parties - including citizens, medical professionals, parents, and representatives of the food industry - can submit their comments on the draft law via the websites postosijekonline.eu and uppt.hr, after which it will be sent to parliamentary procedure.
