CANDY!
Government
FDA
The FDA has recommended that lead levels in candy products are likely to be consumed frequently by small children not exceed 0.1 ppm
How does this relate to Canada?
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has signed an arrangement with the Canadian Food Inspection Agency (CFIA) and the Department of Health Canada recognizing each other's food safety systems as comparable to each other.
PSA's and advertisements/commercials
Most commercials that are aimed at children, mostly advertise foods with little or no nutrition like sugary cereals, soda and fast-food. The ads mostly feature popular cartoon characters, which excite kids more.
Packaging
When developing a product targeted towards children, kids are attracted to bold and bright colors in comparison to pale and dark colors.
Primary colors (red, blue, yellow) and secondary colors (green, purple, orange) are use to grab children attention. Shiny wrappers are also a good marketing tact.
Semiotics
Most companies try to use very memorable and aesthetically pleasing symbols. From funny to fancy text and writing, these symbols are so famous, you can name them with a glace.
Jelly Belly
Chupa Chips
Jolly rancher
Major companies
Candy corn
One of the most controversial sweets. Candy corn was the most-hated candy in 21 American states. It makes consumers want to try this to 'prank' and try it out.
The candy corn challenge was popular between 2016-2018 which increased sales
Candy corn's harvest colors and low cost made it the obvious choice to offer
The treat generates $36 million annually in sales.
Haribo
The German candy brand that introduced the world to Gummy Bear.
Estimated revenues exceed $3 billion.
Skittles
By 2020, Skittles was No. 1 non-chocolate candy by market share across all retail channels. It was also the No. 1 Halloween candy.
Skittles were America's favorite non-chocolate chewy candy, with sales in excess of 185 million U.S. dollars.
Hubba Bubba
Hubba Bubba is a popular brand of bubble gum with unique packaging. Unlike regular gum, Hubba bubba comes in the form of tape-rolls in adorable containers.
Hubba Bubba earns about $38.73 million yearly.
Stores and supermarkets
To increase sales, candy bar racks are placed in the most-visited section of the store: the checkout counter.
Walmart
Checkout
Shoppers Drug Mart
Checkout
Most sugary foods are kids eye level. A kid will grab and beg his parents to buy.
Candy consumers
Target audience
Children and young individuals
The growing availability of different varieties of candies led to the high demand for candies, fueled by impulsive purchase behavior of consumers.
Health affects
• Cause obesity and increase lipids an the body.
• Can increases the risk of type 2 diabetes.
• Increases the risks of cardiovascular disease when plaque develops in the arteries and blood vessels that lead blocks important nutrients and oxygen from reaching the heart.
• Leads to cavities and enamel damage as shown above. Cavities, also called tooth decay, is caused by a combination of factors, including bacteria in your mouth, frequent snacking, sipping sugary drinks and not cleaning your teeth well.
• The harmful impact of some additives, like caffeine. Also, eating sugar releases opioids and dopamine in our bodies; dopamine is a neurotransmitter that is a key part of the “reward circuit” associated with addictive behavior.
HOW DOES THIS AFFECT THE HEART? When you eat too much sugar, the extra fat in your bloodstream can affect your arteries, especially near the heart. It can block the arteries. This stresses your heart and damages it over time. This will cause: Heart disease, heart failure, heart attacks, and strokes.
DURING COVID-19
It is important during this time to eat health fruits and vegetables instead of sugary candy. Candy and sugary foods can compromise your immune system, so you are more likely to get sick. If you eat a lot of junk food high in sugar or refined carbohydrates, the body will process this as sugar, so you may be reducing your body's ability to fight off diseases and illness.
WHY IS CANDY PROBLEMATIC? Eating candy is a treat almost everyone enjoys. Candy really is a joy. However, when companies and stores promote eating candy on a regular basis, may cause you to eat too many calories overall, which leads to weight gain. Obesity can cause cardiovascular diseases (plaque blocking blood vessels) and diabetes are the diseases of the century after all.
How is it connected to me? I really love candy, personally. It makes me happy and satisfied when I have a big mouth-full of skittles. However, since I got a cavity and the introduction of COVID-19, I have been trying to subdue my candy addiction.
Environment
Candy wrappers have been the No. 1 cause of plastic pollution. We currently recover only about five to 10 percent of the plastic produced. About 50 percent gets buried in landfill where it will not biodegrade.
Why Nestle is the most hated company? Nestlé uses 1.7 million tons of plastic annually. Nestle is quite possibly one of the world's most corrupt corporations. Some of their illegal activities include: -Child labor (Children younger than 15 continue to work at cocoa farms connected to Nestlé, more than a decade after the food company promised to end it)
-Unethical promotion (Nestle has been aggressively promoting infant formula, especially to poor countries)
-Manipulating uneducated mothers (Markets false information to create a dependency on their formula. Nestle provides hospitals with free baby formula for a week. Sounds cool, right? When a mother stops breastfeeding, it takes a few days to a week for her milk to dry up and the hormones to go back to normal. So by the time the formula runs out, so does a mother’s milk, and they have no choice but to buy more formula.)
-Pollution (Nestlé is third in the list of top polluters globally, according to global brand audits of plastic pollution)
-Price fixing (Price fixing refers to an agreement between market participants to collectively raise, lower, or stabilize prizes to control supply and demand)
-Mislabeling (7 out of the 15 breakfast cereals with the highest levels of sugar, fat, and salt were Nestle products. Cheerios and Shredders are just 2 examples)
Nestle has also been responsible for stealing California's San Bernardino National Forest's water supply. it's pulling millions of gallons of water out of the ground of drought-stricken areas to bottle and sell.
Influencers/Celebrities
Most celebrities do brand deals and promote products for money even if it is not healthy. Most times, the target audience for these advertisements, are children.
Candy shipping
One of the candy industries bad habits, is using trucks to transport there products, specifically Truckload Stop-offs (stop-offs at multiple delivery destinations). This is associated with high costs and air pollution.
Air pollution: Cars and trucks are one of the leading causes of air pollution. Passenger vehicles and heavy-duty trucks are a major source of this pollution, which includes ozone, particulate matter, and other smog-forming emissions.