Beleaguered food producers have received a welcome boost in the form of a recent global survey by online market researcher Lightspeed Research which suggested parents, not food manufacturers, are generally viewed as responsible for childhood obesity.

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The survey, conducted in nine countries around the world, revealed that 85% of US respondents felt parents were responsible for the rise in obesity in children, while advertisers and food manufacturers were blamed by only 5% and 7% of the respondents respectively. Interestingly, government, schools and restaurants were felt to be the least to blame, each receiving only 1% of the votes.


Overall, 75% of the 136,441 global respondents felt that parents were the most to blame. The highest level of blame attributed to parents was in the US (85%), followed by Sweden (81%), the UK (78%) and Australia (77%).


Italian respondents blamed parents the least (57%), but in Italy advertisers were perceived as being more culpable, with 24% of Italian respondents blaming advertisers for the rise in child obesity.

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