Children-Nutrition and Advertising

As a leader in the food industry and commercial food service, ConAgra Foods has a special responsibility to schoolchildren to provide healthy options and accurate nutritional information.

Childhood obesity is an increasing problem. The rate of obesity among children 6 to 17 years of age has tripled since 1975, from about 5% to 16%, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

ConAgra Foods has taken action by reformulating our Kid Cuisine frozen meals to improve nutrition and cut fat. We have improved The Max, our popular school food service pizza, by incorporating Ultragrain, our groundbreaking whole-wheat flour with a taste and texture similar to white flour. We've also added protein and fiber, and reduced fat and sodium—and kids love it.

The Chef Boyardee brand is among the most recent ConAgra products to see its recipe updated to reflect new nutritional science and the USDA's dietary guidelines. And that's just the beginning. In all of our children's offerings, we're creating more nutritious foods, through such means as adding calcium or fiber.

In addition, we take care in our promotions to children and their parents. We are committed to responsible and truthful advertising and hold ourselves and our agencies to the highest standards.

ConAgra Foods has a long-established commitment to marketing its products responsibly, including those marketed to families and children under 12 years of age. With particular regard to our children’s advertising activities, ConAgra Foods is a supporter of the Children’s Advertising Review Unit (CARU) of the Council of Better Business Bureaus (CBBB), and we adhere to their guidelines for advertising to children. We believe adherence to the CARU Guidelines, which were updated recently to broaden and further strengthen CARU’s oversight of advertising for food products directed to children is a key component of a company’s marketing practices involving children.

Consistent with our commitment to responsible marketing, ConAgra Foods is pleased to be a member of the CBBB’s Children’s Food and Beverage Advertising Initiative, and is fully supportive of the goals and objectives of the Initiative. ConAgra Foods is pledging that 100 percent of its advertising directed primarily to children under the age of 12 will be for products that meet the company’s new nutritional guidelines or include healthful lifestyle messages.

ConAgra Foods’ newly established Children’s Advertising Nutritional Guidelines are based on the 2005 U.S. Dietary Guidelines for Americans and Institute of Medicine recommendations as they pertain to fat, trans fat, saturated fat, and sugar. If a product to be advertised does not meet the new guidelines as of the effective date of the pledge, ConAgra Foods either will include messaging that promotes a healthful lifestyle in the advertisements or not advertise the product to children under 12.

ConAgra Foods’ Children’s Food and Beverage Advertising Initiative Pledge