While regulations are now in place to limit the television advertising of unhealthy food and drinks to children, it appears that these products still have a starring role in TV programmes aimed at young people, a new Irish study has found.

According to the findings, unhealthy food and drink products are commonly shown in children's programmes that are broadcast in Ireland and England and these products are often portrayed in a positive light.

The study was carried out by researchers at University Hospital Limerick's department of paediatrics. They pointed out that while there is a clear link between exposure to unhealthy food advertisements and the consumption of these products in young children, the impact of seeing the same products in programmes aimed at them is unclear.

They set out to assess the frequency and type of food and drink products portrayed in children's television programmes that were broadcast between 6am and 5pm, Monday to Friday, on the RTE and BBC channels in 2010.

All food and drink cues were assessed and coded according to the type of product, the characters involved, the motivation for consumption and the outcome.

The researchers recorded 1,155 food and drink cues during 82.5 hours of programmes. Almost 40% of this content was from the US and each food or drink cue lasted an average of 13 seconds.

The most common food cues found in children's programmes were sweet snacks (13%), followed by confectionary/candy (11%). The most common drink cues were tea and coffee (13%), followed by sugary drinks (13%).

Overall, unhealthy foods accounted for almost half of all food cues, while sugary drinks accounted for one-quarter of all drink cues.

The majority of cues involved a major character, 95% of whom were considered ‘good' characters. At least 90% of the characters were not overweight despite their consumption of these unhealthy foods and drinks.

The study also found that the food and drink cues were presented in a positive or neutral light in around 80% of the programmes. Just over 19% of the cues were portrayed in a negative light.

A direct comparison meanwhile between the content aired on RTE and the BBC found that food and drink cues were more common in programmes shown on the BBC.

The researchers concluded that eating and drinking ‘are common activities within children specific programming, with unhealthy foods and beverages especially common and frequently associated with positive motivating factors, and seldom seen with negative outcomes'.

They said that this is something that parents, doctors and policy-makers need to be more aware of, and added that this type of content needs to be balanced by more portrayals of healthy foods.

Details of these findings are published in the journal, Archives of Disease in Childhood.