Total Sugar Criteria Plus Commitments for Tighter Criteria Announced

December 14th, 2016

Today, Choices International issued criteria for total sugar. These criteria come next to the existing criteria for added sugar, and can be used in countries where no added sugar data are available.

The Choices criteria for product groups give maximum levels for sodium, saturated fat, trans fatty acids, energy and added sugar, as well as minimum levels for dietary fiber. While working in more and more countries, the Choices International Scientific Committee concluded that the use of the Choices criteria is often limited because data on added sugar are not available. In contrast, data on total sugar are much more widely available. To address this need, the International Scientific Committee derived total sugar levels by calculating the added sugar criteria plus total levels of naturally-occurring sugar in all relevant product group.

The added sugar criteria remain the norm; only in cases that added sugar data are not available, can the total sugar criteria be used.

Going a Step Further

While discussing the sugar criteria, the Committee concluded that a further decrease of sugar levels in several product groups is needed to keep pace with current developments and demands, and to maintain its leading role within the nutrient profiling dialogue. Because the previous criteria revision took place recently, the Committee decided to present these new criteria as commitments for the next criteria revision that will take place in 2018. These future sugar criteria (both on added and on total sugar) are added to the 2015 international criteria in separate tables and will go into effect with the next criteria revision.

Click here for the updated criteria set (PDF).

More information: rutger.schilpzand@choicesprogramme.org

Dutch Minister opts for food education app

October 20th, 2016

This week the Dutch Minister of Health Edith Schippers has decided to substitute the use of the Dutch Choices logo by a smartphone app. The use of the Dutch logo will be terminated in October 2017. The Dutch Choices Foundation “Ik Kies Bewust” (IKB) will use this one year transition time to develop new ways to drive reformulation and consumer education on healthier choices. 

This step is part of a broader process of renewal of healthy food policies. The Minister strongly supports reformulation, as is shown in the Road Map for Product Improvement that has been issued during the Dutch EU presidency early 2016. Both the Minister and the IKB Foundation want to build further on the good results of ten years of logo use in The Netherlands. Scientific studies have shown that this logo and its underlying criteria have been an effective driver for product improvement. In ten years time, the criteria have been adapted three times. This has caused a further decrease of sugar, salt and saturated fat in hundreds of products. In addition, 95% of the Dutch adults are aware of the logo, which has a 93% coverage of the Dutch retail market.
Finally, the Dutch government has decided to develop a comprehensive database on food information. This should also include the nutrition data per product. A database like this is indispensible both for consumer education by the app and for the monitoring of product improvement. 

This discussion in The Netherlands does not have consequences for the use of the Choices label in other countries. The Choices interactions with countries and international organisations will proceed unchanged.

Thailand launches healthier choice logo to reduce NCDs

August 31st, 2016

On 31 August 2016 the Minister of Public Health of Thailand has given the official kick-off for a front-of-pack logo programme that identifies healthier food options per food category. Choices International welcomes this initiative as an important element of the public health actions in Thailand.

Overweight, obesity and related non-communicable diseases as well as a rapid increase in the number of elderly cause growing nutritional problems in Thailand that have affected at least 30% of the population. This can cause huge financial burdens for the country’s health care system.

In 2014 the National Food Committee of Thailand therefore advised to implement a front-of-pack label. The Healthier Choices Nutrition Symbol was then developed with the agreement of food companies, academics and the public sector.

The logo is owned by the Thai Food & Drug Administration, which assigned the Nutrition Promotion Foundation of the Mahidol University, to manage the symbol’s use.

Intended to cover all food products, the logo now can be applied to ready-to-eat meals, beverages, dairy products, sauces, instant noodles and snacks. Other food groups will follow. From the start already 56 products are certified and 15 food companies have joined the programme.

Thailand participates in a regional forum consisting of representatives from Singapore, Malaysia, Indonesia, Brunei Darussalam, and China, as well as experts from the Choices International Foundation, in order to create more coherence in the national criteria within the ASEAN region.

Choices International cordially welcomes this logo initiative with which it closely cooperates and that might represent an example for more countries in the ASEAN region.