Report calls out food industry for “falling short” on nutrition policies

24 Jun 2022 --- The World Health Organization (WHO) and the STOP Project are presenting 6 toolkits to tackle child obesity and improve health across Europe, amid calls for the food industry to step up.

“Food companies across Europe are falling short of best practice nutrition recommendations, while at the same time relying on ultra processed foods as a large part of their product portfolio,” Dr Hannah Brinsden, communications-lead of the STOP Project and director of policy at World Obesity Federation, tells NutritionInsight.

STOP is a project focused on science and technology in child obesity, brought together by 24 international research and advocacy organizations to address the increasing issue of child obesity in Europe, and contribute with policy-relevant evidence.

“Achieving healthier food environments requires meaningful actions from a range of stakeholders. Food companies clearly have a role to play in ensuring that the food they sell and market is not excessively high in fat, sugar and salt and that healthier food is affordable for all.”

The 6 policies address ways to improve nutrition labeling, fiscal policies, reformulation, marketing restrictions, physical activity in schools, and nudge policies. 

The “backlash of nutritional labeling”Nutritional labeling backlashes as food companies have exploited it for marketing purposes.
The report highlights that unhealthy diets are causing 8 million premature deaths. Informing consumers how to make healthy decisions through labeling is therefore stressed by the two organizations. 

The policy focuses on the list of ingredients, nutrient declarations, supplementary nutrient information, and nutrition and health claims. 

Nutritional labeling has the chance to “help rebalance a food retail environment,” the report underscores. Nonetheless, it adds nutritional labeling has been exploited by companies in the food industry through marketing as they may “reform the label to help the product fall into a healthier range.”

One example of such is infant formulas, as harmful marketing techniques have disrupted the recommendations from the WHO of breastfeeding up to 12 months of age for higher nutritional absorption.

Front pack labeling is one approach to improve nutritional knowledge, and a study conducted in the US showed significant improvements in nutritional density in products. At the same time, it is believed to influence competitors in the market to follow the same approach, resulting in more information spread to consumers.

“We need a package of policies to improve food environments in a number of ways to increase the likely impact. We know marketing, including digital marketing, restrictions are essential, and that some policies such as fiscal policies can help encourage reformulation as well as changes to consumer purchase behaviors,” Brinsden underscores.

Transforming food systems
To tackle the issue of processed foods, food reformulation is mentioned in the report as “the process of altering the processing or composition of a food or beverage product, to improve its nutritional profile or to reduce its content of ingredients or nutrients of concern.”

The results of processed foods are that the intake of fats, sodium and sugar increases, contributing to unhealthy diets. Previous data from the WHO shows that the daily average intake of sodium globally is above twice the recommended amount.Accelerated regulation on food reformulation is required to reduce unhealthy diets.

The WHO focuses on improving the food system for health, as the current system is failing to deliver healthy diets for all. Even though food reformulation will not eliminate the consumption of processed foods, it aims to reduce it.

The report mentions: “If food systems are transformed, they can become a powerful driving force toward ending hunger, food insecurity and malnutrition in all its forms. There is no single solution. Instead, it is recommended to implement coherent portfolios of policies, investments and legislation prioritizing health.”

Additionally, ensuring that food products have a fair price to all consumers, taking poverty, the environment, the producers and health into account.

Global differences
The report notes that countries are introducing legislation to reduce processed food on an increasing level. However, there is a need for accelerated regulatory action to decrease the intake of unhealthy fats, sugars and sodium. 

Previous data from the WHO show that 111 countries have set strategies and national policies to implement food reformulation, and 75 countries have set voluntary or mandatory limits on reformulation targets. 

Many countries, rather than setting mandatory limits, have set policy goals to stimulate food reformulation.

The report explains the distribution: “Only a few countries in the African and South-East Asia Region and less than a third of countries in the Western Pacific Region implement mandatory limits or voluntary targets.” The European Union is the driving region for implementation.

“When implementing policies, often, countries know ‘what’ they should do, but they are less sure about ‘how’ to do so. Some countries, especially in the EU, are pioneers in these policy areas and have years of experience – meeting bottlenecks and challenges, addressing them through trials and errors,” says Francesco Branca, department of nutrition for health and development director, WHO.

“The policy briefs are based on such critical experience and know-how of countries as well as the most up-to-date evidence and research that will be useful for policymakers embarking on a policy effort to combat childhood obesity.”

By Beatrice Wihlander