Ethical Responsibilities and Fast Foods

Ethical Responsibilities and Fast Food
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As per the latest statistics from the CDC, about 15.3 percent of US kids are obese whereas obese adults are estimated to be 37.8 percent. While numerous factors cause obesity, there has been a blame game on who is primarily responsible. However, a large percentage of Americans believe that fast food restaurants should be blamed while the other proportion considers it as a personal responsibility. Despite the blame game, fast food companies should be ethical in the way they advertise their products. The advertisements should not be directed at children as most of them cannot make sound decisions for themselves regarding the type of food to take. Similarly, fast food companies and outlets should end their false advertisement that promotes fast foods as healthy in addition to selling unhealthy foods at low prices (Okolowski, 2007). Another thing fast food companies should do is to indicate the calory information on packets and menus so that consumers can be able to see and decide for themselves whether to consume the food or not (Soba & Aydin, 2011).
Fast food consumers, on the other hand, should be responsible when it comes to the foods they consume. They should blame no one for the types of food they eat. The government, as a stakeholder, should ensure companies follow the necessary guidelines. It should not sit down and watch companies break the law and do nothing instead (Zhang, Liu, Liu, Xue & Wang, 2014).

For the case of historical restrictions to fast food companies, I do not see this happening. The government has done the same in the past, but it yielded no fruits. Among the mechanisms that have been employed as a means of restricting fast food companies include taxation and subsidies, nutritional regulations and standards, food environment and education as well as policy enforcement (Zhang et al., 2014). Industries have always gone to court after such restrictions, and such limitations have been reverted. Nonetheless, government strictness will not only force fast food companies to follow industry regulations, but it will also discourage startup firms. This can reduce obesity rates.

References
Okolowski, J. (2007). The Ethics of Food Advertising. Retrieved from http://www.neumann.edu/about/publications/NeumannBusinessReview/journal/review_2007/food_adveSoba, M., & Aydin, E. (2011). Ethical approach to fast food product contents and their advertisement strategies. International Journal of Business and Social Science, 2(24).
Zhang, Q., Liu, S., Liu, R., Xue, H., & Wang, Y. (2014). Food policy approaches to obesity prevention: An international perspective. Current obesity reports, 3(2), 171-182.