| Abstract: | This paper explores the pattern of change and development in the marketization and reconstitution of food products for children. It is in the past few decades that global corporations’ search for new markets has come to focus intensely on children. In the eyes of global corporations, children are a huge, multibillion dollar market. Childhood may be understood as a social construction but its form is historically specific. At present, the market is defining and reconstituting cultural meanings of childhood without being contested by other significant groups in society. The paper goes on to explore how transnational corporations have transformed the production and marketing of food. The paper discusses the food risks and the challenges faced by the fast food industry which specifically targets children. The reconstitution and the rebranding of popular children's food is producing ‘virtual’ food rather than real food. We live in an era where childhood offers untold opportunities in the northern hemisphere. However, the global market has come to dominate and define the social construction of childhood. Other cultural forms of identity outside of consumerism are not making the same impression. The food risks associated with the global processing of food and the health risks that have been linked to these new food forms ultimately has consequences not only for children but for society as a whole. |
