The National Food Museum has opened two new virtual exhibitions that provide practical information to Americans about their own diets and about the marketing of foods to children.
- The Food Impact Meter is an online calculator that informs consumers about the health and environmental impacts of their diets. It also offers personalized advice – dietary changes that would improve their impact scores. The Food Impact Meter’s evaluation is based on a user’s responses to 16 questions.
- The Selling Candy to Kids exhibition gives parents a “tour” of how food manufacturers and fast-food restaurants entice children to demand their products. The website features more than 150 TV and web commercials, print ads, brand-emblazoned apparel and toys, product placements in movies and computer games, social-media ploys, and packages festooned with familiar cartoon characters that are all aimed at selling snack foods, fast foods, and sugary cereals. Today’s media-marketing practices are more effective than ever because they can be based on tracking kids through their social media, digital TV, and web-surfing habits.
The National Food Museum seeks to inform and promote critical thinking about and encourage engagement in important food-related issues. It was founded and is led by Michael Jacobson, Ph.D., who co-founded and led the Center for Science in the Public Interest for many decades. Jacobson is also a senior fellow at the Consumer Policy Center, which contends that museums could inform not only consumers but also those influencing consumer policies.
