European Commission on trans fatty acids

December 8th, 2015

The European Commission at 3 December presented its report on the need to reduce trans fatty acids (TFA) in the diet. High intake of TFA is a risk factor for coronary heart disease, that is responsible for around 660 thousand deaths annually in the EU. Such reduction can be realized by legislative actions, such as TFA limits in foodstuffs or mandatory TFA labelling, and voluntary measures such as voluntary reformulation.

Although the majority of food products in Europe contains less than 2 gram TFA per 100 gram fat, there are still product groups on the market with high levels of TFA. For instance biscuits and (pre-packed) bakery products. The average daily intake of TFA in Europe seems to be decreasing, but in low-income groups the recommended levels can be exceeded. The European Commission notes that all existing TFA reduction approaches can significantly reduce TFA levels in food. The EC proposes possible EU measures to further reduce TFA intake: mandatory TFA content declaration; EU legal limit on industrial TFA content of food and voluntary agreements towards reducing industrial TFA in foods and diets at EU level. In a first discussion a number of EU health ministers asked for mandatory TFA limits.

TFA is one of the nutrients in the Choices criteria. Modelling studies in a number of countries demonstrate that a full Choices-compliant diet almost completely reduces the intake of TFA. (see A. Roodenburg, PLOS 2011 and EW de Menezes, Food Chemistry 2013)

Read the full report of the European Commission here (PDF).

Front-of-pack nutrition labelling spurs innovation and healthier options

October 23rd, 2015

A recent study examined the effects of consumer packaged food manufacturers’ voluntary adoption of front-of-pack (FOP) nutrition labelling programmes on company innovation across more than 600 brands and 7,500 US products over a 10-year period.  Researchers  found that participating companies introduce more innovative and nutritionally better products as compared to non-participating companies. Additional analyses suggest that early adopters of FOP nutrition labeling introduce more new products as compared to late adopters of FOP. The results of this study, that has been financially supported by Unilever, have important implications for companies and policy makers and merits further examination of the effects of industry-led voluntary initiatives on consumer welfare.

[Lim JH, Rishika R, and Janakiraman R. The Effects of Voluntary Disclosure of Product Information on Firm Innovation: The Case of Front-of-Package Nutrition Labeling Initiative. Working paper, September 2015]

Food composition data in the Choices International Programme

October 20th, 2015

In a recently published article in Food Chemistry, the use of food composition data for the Choices programme is further explained. One of the authors of the article is Léon Jansen, scientific coordinator of Choices International Foundation. 

Food composition data are essential for the Choices-like programmes, as they form the basis of criteria development and deliver insights in the quality of the average foodproducts on the market. This gives an indication of achievable product innovation per product category. In addition, food composition data can be used for nutrient intake modeling studies. These studies have, for example, demonstrated that an average diet with only Choices products is a healthier diet. The authors discuss in depth the role and availability of food composition databases. They conclude that access to product composition stimulates food research. The food industry, retail and out-of-home industry can help initiatives that stimulate a healthier lifestyle by making their product composition data easy available.

Read the full article here: http://authors.elsevier.com/a/1RoMv16Ds1RTdJ