Positive logos present themselves together

March 4th, 2016

Positive front-of-pack logos have been present in Europe for already many years. The number of countries that implement these logos continues to increase. The positive logos Keyhole, Heart Symbol and Choices - currently implemented in 12 countries in Europe - have now presented themselves jointly in a video clip. The animation summarizes the basic principles shared by the three logos and shows the high level of consumer awareness (up to 95%!) in the key countries. A clear sign that the positive logos are a strong proposition for healthy food promotion and obesity and NCD prevention in Europe. Watch the video on our website.

First European conference on reformulation & 3rd European Logo Round Table

February 26th, 2016

As the Dutch Health Minister and acting Chair of the European Health Council Edith Schippers proudly announced, the Conference on Food Product Improvement in Amsterdam was the first ever to discuss food reformulation in Europe with such a broad audience of senior health authorities, NGOs and business. Choices held a workshop during the conference on cooperation in front-of-pack labelling upon request of the Dutch Ministry. In the workshop the Keyhole, Heart Symbol, Traffic Light and Choices labelling initiatives have been presented. One of the conclusions of the workshop was that countries should not develop their own front-of-pack labelling, but do so in cooperation and based on the existing programmes.

The spirit of cooperation in reformulation and labelling was also expressed in the Roadmap that, at the end of the Conference, was supported by 22 member states and many companies and NGOs. Based on the same spirit of cooperation, Choices organized the Third European Logo Round Table that brought Keyhole, the Heart Symbol and Choices around the table to discuss a joint positioning and scientific exchange. The Round Table concluded that the need for simple, understandable and credible food labelling is growing. The positive logos that are already present in 12 countries in Europe can answer this need. Based on cooperation between government, food industry and NGOs and substantiated by science, these logo programmes show a high credibility and a consumer awareness that can amount to a level as high as 95%. With their realistic and product group specific criteria for reduction of sugar, salt and saturated fat, these logo programmes also act as an agenda for food product improvement.

Impressive growth in healthier products of Consumer Goods Forum members

January 28th, 2016

The members of the Consumer Goods Forum (CGF) have made substantial progress in fulfilling its Health & Wellness resolutions to empower consumers to make healthy choices. Regarding reformulation, members reached an impressive growth in reformulated products of 84,000 healthier product in 2015, compared to 22,500 in 2014. This was demonstrated in the CGF’s  yearly survey on the efforts of the members regarding health and wellness.

The Consumer Goods Forum is the association of more than 400 of the largest international food manufacturers and retailers around the globe. The respondents of this year’s survey showed a balanced representation of food and beverage manufactures (44%) and retailers (37%); they were for a great part based in Asian regions (39%).

The survey shows great progress of the members: 95% of the respondents have established policies and activated programmes on at least one of the CGF’s three Health& Wellness Resolutions, whereas 74% of the respondents even undertook action on all three. In 2015 partnerships in health and wellness, for instance between manufactures, retailers and foundations, reached 1.8 billion people. The growth in number of reformulated products almost quadrupled from 22,500 in 2014 to 84,000 in 2015. Choices International, one of the non-business members of the CGF, is happy to see the steps that companies took to make the healthy choice the easy choice. However, much has to be done yet. For example: only 6% of the companies responded that the reformulated products represent at least 60% or more of their food portfolios.

CGF chairs Paul Bulcke (Nestlé CEO) and Dick Boer (Ahold CEO) conclude that “With our collective action on Health & Wellness, more is now being done to help empower consumers to make informed decisions. However, we still have a long way to go. We will need to intensify the effort and we invite more companies to contribute to achieving our collective ambition.”

Read the full press release and report on the CGF website.