The U.S. Federal Trade Commission issued subpoenas to 44 food and beverage companies including Coca-Cola Co., McDonald's Corp. and Procter &Gamble Co., seeking information on how they market to children.
The companies have 90 days to respond to the orders, which were sent over the past week, FTC spokeswoman Jackie Dizdul said in an interview today. The information is being collected for an FTC study on advertising of food and drinks to kids, mandated under a federal appropriations bill for the agency.
Other companies that received the subpoenas include PepsiCo Inc., Burger King Holdings Inc., Kraft Foods Inc. and General Mills Inc. The FTC's study comes amid increasing rates of childhood obesity.
