Expanding food marketing regulation: the role of trusted messengers

Current food marketing regulations have progressively expanded to address what foods are marketed, how they are marketed, where marketing occurs, and to whom commercial messages are directed. However, these frameworks largely overlook who communicates unhealthy food messages, despite growing evidence that trusted messengers, including athletes, sports organizations, social media influencers, healthcare professionals and public institutions, can substantially enhance the credibility and persuasive power of commercial food marketing. This regulatory gap is increasingly important in digital environments, where commercial content is embedded within trusted relationships and persuasive intent is often less transparent. We argue that trusted messengers should be recognized as a distinct regulatory dimension within food marketing governance, complementing existing approaches rather than replacing them. Expanding regulatory frameworks to explicitly address the commercial use of trusted messengers could strengthen public health policies by improving transparency, reducing conflicts of interest, and better protecting children and the wider population from unhealthy food marketing. Recognizing who communicates commercial food messages represents a necessary next step towards more comprehensive regulation of contemporary food environments.