Choices’ commitment to a better product offering

March 15th, 2013

In the fight against obesity, unhealthy diets and chronic diseases, every participant has an important role to play. Policy makers want to ensure that consumers make informed and healthy food choices; scientists work towards improving public health and innovation. A number of front runner food companies are initiating or joining such initiatives. All these ambitions bring stakeholders on the same side in the fight against diet-related chronic diseases.

The current trend
At global level, engaging "an increasing number of public health actors, including foundations, civil society organizations, partnerships and the private sector, in work related to prevention and control of noncommunicable diseases" has become part of the World Health Organisation’s action points.

At EU level, in 2005, the EU Platform on Diet Physical Activity and Health has been launched with the aim of bringing together stakeholders at European level from across societies to explore common approaches to tackling diet and physical activity. Since then, its platform members have made more than 300 commitments that turned into concrete and monitored action-plans.

Earlier this year, Health Commissioner Borg expressed that "it is both heartening and inspiring to see how partners – from the public and private sectors and from European regions – are forging collaborations and putting together investments and networks, working towards the common goal of sustainable and integrated care for citizens", in his speech on "Fostering innovation in health".

About Choices
The Choices Programme has proven to be a successful cooperation between food companies, retailers, scientists, and policy-makers. Independent nutrition scientists set the criteria, that food companies must see to comply with. The programme is substantiated by scientific evidence that shows how the Choices logo stimulates healthy product development and innovation.

We work with frontrunner companies that understand the value of cooperation with independent scientists. Throughout our work, we noticed that an increasing number of food companies became willing to take responsibility for a long-term strategy on health and sustainability.

This industry cooperation led to tangible results. Currently, there are around 130 Choices-participating companies with over 7000 products carrying the logo in The Netherlands/Belgium, Czech Republic/Slovakia and Poland. These companies are constantly improving their products, hence increasing the number of Choices criteria-compliant foods.

An important aim of Choices is to indicate healthy options in all food categories, including processed foods. We find the concept of ‘ultra processed food’ a difficult one, as we do not see a clear relation between the level of processing and health properties. For example, low fat cheese demands a lot of processing and technology and is a better choice than less processed ‘normal’ or ‘artisanal’ cheese, while non-processed lard is not a very healthy option. Next to educating consumers to choose for healthy basic food, improving product composition of the commonly eaten foods is an essential contribution to the improvement of population’s diet and Choices has been successfully encouraging companies to do so since its inception.

Where we stand
Substantially more needs to be done to make our daily food healthier. Research shows that the credibility of the logo would improve if it became known that public and scientific authorities support it. We have increasingly more examples of healthy product offerings, supplemented by scientific support and government endorsement and we strongly believe that our energy should now be focused on reaching all consumers. We see many reasons to support positive initiatives and to applaud healthy product innovation and reformulation.

All in all, we stay positive in our belief that joint action and commitment will help encourage healthy eating habits. Food industry should be part of the solution to reduce obesity and unhealthy diet risk factors.

WHO publishes draft Global Action Plan for Prevention of NCDs 2013-2020

February 15th, 2013

WHO has officially released a draft of the Global Action Plan for the Prevention and Control of Noncommunicable Diseases (NCDs) 2013-2020. The comprehensive first draft was commented upon by Member States during the 132nd session of the WHO Executive Board and a revised version was published on 13 February 2013.

Web-based consultation has been launched
Currently, a web-based consultation has been launched. Member States, UN agencies, non-governmental organisations and selected private sector entities can share their comments before 10 March 2013.

After this third round of informal consultations, the final version of the Action Plan will be considered by Member States during the 66th World Health Assembly at the end of May. Choices International Foundation is closely following the developments on the WHO proposed action for Member States with respect to promoting a healthy diet.

Choices and WHO identify common interests

January 4th, 2013

The Choices Programme was launched in direct response to the WHO’s call for the food industry to help make the healthy choice the easy choice. The Programme’s product criteria are also based on WHO-dietary recommendations. Therefore, good interaction between the two organisations is of obvious relevance. A recent visit to the WHO-headquarters in Geneva by a Choices-delegation helped bring to light several shared interests, thus providing possible opportunities for future cooperation.

Dietary improvement through nutrient profiling
An obvious interest that the WHO and the Choices Programme share relates to reducing trans fat, added sugars, salt and saturated fats in people’s diets. The WHO is developing a ‘how to guide’ in which positive, front-of-pack logos may be put forward as good examples of how to bring about these reductions. Nutrient profiling is seen as an important tool and therefore high on the WHO’s agenda. The Choices Programme will be invited to share its experiences on the topic, and as reliable food composition data are of crucial importance in nutrient profiling, cooperation between the WHO/FAO and the Choices Programme in this area may be of mutual interest.

Healthy food procurement
Other shared interests lie in the area of healthy food procurement – for instance in schools, supermarkets and the food service sector. The WHO has expressed interest in the high degree of cooperation by Dutch retailers within the Dutch Choices Programme, as well as in the VU-research project that is currently assessing the feasibility of linking the Choices Programme with  healthy school cafeterias.