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by | October 1, 2014 | Reports

Plenary meeting of the European Platform for Action on Diet, Physical Activity and Health

The Plenary session of 25 September 2014 focused on the Annual Monitoring
Report 2014 and on commitments regarding the composition of foods
(reformulation), availability of healthy food options and portion sizes.

Disclaimer: this overview is based on DG Sanco’s Flash Report

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What is new
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Jan Wollgast from the Joint Research Centre (JRC) provided an overview of scientific news and policy developments in the fields of nutrition and physical activity (reduce inequalities in access to healthy food, use evidence based strategies).

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Policy discussion on reformulation
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Stephanie Bodenbach, DG SANCO, gave an overview of Commission policy on food reformulation. Following the publication of a recent study, Eugenio Stoppani, DG ENTER, gave a [presentation on the consequences of
food taxes on food reformulation->http://ec.europa.eu/enterprise/newsroom/cf
/itemdetail.cfm?item_id=7668&lang=en].

Christian Salles, INRA, presented the FP7 project Terifiq that aims at reducing the sodium-fat and fat-sugar content of frequently consumed food products without affecting the products’ nutritional and sensorial qualities or the safety and affordability for both industry and consumers.

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Annual Monitoring Report 2014
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A final discussion was held on the Annual Monitoring Report 2014 covering the Platform members’ activities of 2013. The revised report, incorporating the comments from Platform members, was adopted by the Plenary. The final version is now available on the Platform webpage.

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The current situation on commitments
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There are 279 commitments in the database of which 121 are active and 158
are non-active. eleven new commitments have come in this year, including two joint commitments. The continuous need to raise the quality and momentum of the Platform was discussed, especially in areas that can support the implementation of the Action Plan on Childhood Obesity or that were identified by the Evaluation Report of 2013 (children, physical activity and
vulnerable groups).

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Overview of active commitments on reformulation
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The stakeholders have undertaken a total of 31 commitments related to composition of foods (reformulation), availability of healthy food options and portion sizes, of which 19 are still on-going. Unilever, the European Snack Association and Nestlé presented their ongoing Platform commitments and work on reformulation. All these companies emphasised that their reformulation actions aimed at improving the entire product portfolio.

Angelika de Bree, European External Affairs Manager at Unilever talked about product reformulation and innovations. (e.g. sugar levels on ready-to-drink teas are on track to being reduced by 25% by 2020).

Sebastian Emig, Director General at the European Snacks Association talked about improvements in product development and choice (e.g. new packaging containing reasonable portion sizes and reduced levels of saturated fat).

Anne Roulin, Vice President for Nutrition, Health and Wellness and Sustainability at Nestlé, gave an update on the company’s reformulation commitments (e.g. salt content reduced by up to 50% in sauces).

The Plenary thanked the presenters for their companies’ efforts and
congratulated them for the achievements reached so far.

Stakeholders’ initiatives in all areas

Mary Fewtrell, on behalf of the European Society for Paediatric Gastroenterology Hepatology and Nutrition, provided an update on their Platform commitments.
http://www.espghan.med.up.pt/

Goof Buijs, from the Dutch Institute for Healthcare Improvement, presented the EU-funded project HEPCOM, a learning platform for preventing childhood obesity in Europe.
http://hepcom.eu/

Mandy Ayres from Nike talked about how the company is supporting more physical activity in Europe.
www.nike.com/

Aude Delesalle, P.A.U Education, presented the DG SANCO pilot project promoting healthy diets among children, women and the elderly, in seven European cities.
http://we-love-eating.eu/en

The Working Group on Monitoring and Reporting has continued discussions on how to improve the monitoring of commitments. An update will be given at the next meeting. The possibility of holding a 4-5 May 2015 meeting in Milan (back to back with relevant Milan Expo events) was welcomed.

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Conclusions by the chair
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The Annual Monitoring Report 2014 was adopted by the Plenary. The report is now available to download from the DG SANCO webpage. The members welcomed and commended the efforts taking place in the area of reformulation. The Plenary agreed on the advantage of improving the Platform’s communication of positive developments. The next meeting of the Platform will take place on 24 November 2014 and members will discuss marketing and advertising Commitments.

More information can be found on DG Sanco website here.

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