The Role and Strategies of Food Manufacturers Towards Obesity and Health Policies

Introduction & Background: Unhealthy diets and non-communicable diseases such as obesity are on the rise on a national and global scale, and there is an urgent need to initiate interventions. However, research suggests there is a lack of effective initiatives from major processed food manufacturers, which are a major contributor to the cause of these health issues. Thus, this study seeks to examine the role that food manufacturers have in contributing to the obesity epidemic and the strategies that they use to navigate around health policies. Purpose Statement Question: Is there evidence of a primary role that processed food manufacturers play in enabling the obesity rates nationally and worldwide through market strategies? Literature Review: A wide variety of databases within public health and medicine, such as PubMed, World Health Organization, and National Institutes of Health, were searched using keywords like “Big Food and obesity,” “marketing and obesity,” and “relationship between obesity and food corporations”. Studies that discussed the impact food manufacturers had on obesity and other non-communicable diseases or strategies that they used were selected. Findings: The different research studies analyzed provided evidence that processed food manufacturers, also known as “Big Food, play a significant role in contributing to public health issues, especially non-communicable diseases like obesity. The food industry uses old and new techniques to solidify its influence nationally while gaining power through global means and evading public policy restrictions Conclusions: There is a need for further research to identify these market strategies and effectively dismantle them