PRESS RELEASE: Dutch Choices logo receives national and EU approval

April 16th, 2013

Brussels, 16 April 2013 – The Dutch version of the Choices logo (‘Vinkje’) is now confirmed as the single food choice logo for The Netherlands. Today marks the official record of the logo in the Dutch Food Nutrition Information Decree. The authorisation is the first of its kind in the European Union, supported by the member states and the European Commission.
 
Pavel Telička, chairman of the Choices International Foundation − governing body of the Choices logo − underlines the importance of this precedent: “The approval confirms the beneficial role a front-of-pack logo can have in public health. It strengthens consumer trust and recognises the efforts our participating companies have made in improving their product portfolio. In time, we hope that the Dutch example can contribute to a European framework for this type of claim.”
 
The Choices logo is a positive front-of-pack logo for food and beverage products. It takes into account the level of saturated fatty acids, trans fatty acids, added sugars, salt, and fibre, as compared with similar products within its category. This single statement about several nutrients is what sets apart a food choice logo from a standard nutrition claim, which only refers to the amount of energy or of one single nutrient. As there is no harmonised approach for such a claim in the regulation, member states are left with their own legislative power when providing for a food choice logo. The Netherlands is the first country to authorise the Choices logo this way.

The logo was presented to the Dutch Ministry of Health, Welfare, and Sport for approval under a new legal article. The article and authorisation were notified to the European Commission by the Dutch Ministry, as required by the European Regulation (EC) on Nutrition and Health Claims made on Foods. The Commission issued a positive opinion after consultation of the other European Union member states. Consequently, the official approval of the logo as a nutrition claim followed.
 
“The authorisation shows how well public authorities and private sector can work together to achieve our common goal of preventing obesity and noncommunicable diseases. Public authorities have the power to strengthen proper multi stakeholder initiatives and have the responsibility to do so. Today, that enforcement was given to the public-private partnership that is the Choices Programme”, concludes Pavel Telička.
 
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Note for editors

For questions, please contact Rutger Schilpzand, Executive Secretary of the Choices International Foundation. Telephone: +32 2 502 13 51. Email: info@choicesprogramme.org.

The official publication of the logo can be found in the Dutch Food Nutrition Information Decree (in NL).

High-resolution images of the Choices logo – all versions − can be downloaded via the Choices online StyleGuide.

Choices compliance could lead to tremendous improvements in Brazilian diets

April 3rd, 2013

Replacing typical Brazilian foods by Choices products may improve Brazilian diets by substantially decreasing unfavorable nutrients while increasing dietary fiber. This appeared from a modeling study by the Brazilian scientists Wenzel de Menezes (see picture) et al. from the University of Sao Paulo, that was recently published in Food Chemistry. Replacing typical products from the Brazilian menu by products complying to the Choices criteria, resulted in a decrease of 52% in saturated fatty acids, 92% of trans fatty acids, 14% of energy and 47% of sodium. Dietary fiber increased by 87%. As data on key nutrients were incomplete in the Brazilian food composition database, the scientists created a new database by collecting information from food labels, resulting in a database of 1720 industrialized products. Data on sugar or added sugar were not sufficiently available to evaluate.

This Brazilian study is the fourth study addressing the potential impact of Choices on nutrient intakes. Two of the earlier studies (Roodenburg et al. 2009 and Temme et al. 2011) relied on data from The Netherlands, while one included data from seven different countries worldwide (Roodenburg et al. 2011).

All these studies show that nutrient intakes would move substantially into a favourable direction when typical menus are replaced by Choices compliant menus, although the size of the effect depends on the local situation. Also, they show that the Choices criteria are equally applicable in non-European countries like Brazil, even without the adaptations that are allowed to adjust for local food patterns.

References

EW de Menezes et al. (2013). Application of Choices criteria in Brazil: impact on nutrient intake and adequacy of food products in relation to compounds associated with the risk of non-transmissible chronic diseases. Food Chemistry (2013). http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.foodchem.2013.02.031

A. Roodenburg et al. (2009). Potential impact of the Choices Programme on nutrient intakes in the Dutch Population. Nutrition Bulletin, 34/3: 318-23.

AJC Roodenburg et al. (2011). Potential effects of nutrient profiles on nutrient intakes in the Netherlands, Greece, Spain, USA, Israel, China and South-Africa. PLoS ONE 6 (2).

EHM Temme et al. (2011). Impact of foods with health logo on saturated fat, sodium and sugar intake of young Dutch adults. Public Health Nutrition 14 (4): 635-644.

Choices Response to the Revised Draft Global NCD Action Plan 2013-2020

March 15th, 2013

Choices International Foundation has submitted a response to the WHO stakeholder consultation on the revised draft Global Action Plan. In its submission, Choices argues for positive front-of-pack labelling systems as a central tool for reaching the WHO nutrition recommendations and for food product reformulation.

Choices mentions in its submission examples of scientifically substantiated positive front-of-pack labelling models - the Nordic Keyhole, the Heart symbols used in Canada and various European countries and the Australian Pick the Tick programme – and calls for further cooperation with WHO regional offices in consumer guidance.

Besides, Choices stresses the importance of partnering with frontrunner food companies and believes that WHO could play an important role as a platform to raise the credibility and efficiency of such partnerships. Please access the full document here.