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Assessment of the Commitments and Performance of the European Food Industry to Improve Population Nutrition

Objectives: Food companies could play an important role in improving population diets, but often escape accountability through unspecific commitments. This study evaluated nutrition-related commitments and estimated performance of the largest packaged food and non-alcoholic beverage manufacturers, s...

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Autores principales: Van Dam, Iris, Guillon, Emilie, Robinson, Ella, Allais, Olivier, Sacks, Gary, Vandevijvere, Stefanie
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: Frontiers Media S.A. 2022
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9198223/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/35719734
http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/ijph.2022.1604116
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author Van Dam, Iris
Guillon, Emilie
Robinson, Ella
Allais, Olivier
Sacks, Gary
Vandevijvere, Stefanie
author_facet Van Dam, Iris
Guillon, Emilie
Robinson, Ella
Allais, Olivier
Sacks, Gary
Vandevijvere, Stefanie
author_sort Van Dam, Iris
collection PubMed
description Objectives: Food companies could play an important role in improving population diets, but often escape accountability through unspecific commitments. This study evaluated nutrition-related commitments and estimated performance of the largest packaged food and non-alcoholic beverage manufacturers, supermarkets and quick-service restaurants (QSR) in Europe. Methods: To quantitatively assess companies’ publicly available commitments in 2020, the “Business Impact Assessment on Obesity and Population Nutrition” was applied. The proportion of sales from ultra-processed and “unhealthy” food categories (product categories not-permitted to be marketed to children) and over time changes in the number of QSR transactions and QSR and supermarket outlets were calculated. Results: Company commitments fell short of best practice recommendations (median overall score of 21%, range: 1%–62%). Food and beverage companies generated 82% (15%–100%) and 58% (1%–100%) sales from ultra-processed and “unhealthy” products, respectively. The number of QSR outlets and transactions substantially increased in Europe since 2011, while QSR commitments to improve population nutrition remained limited. Conclusion: Whilst most companies made some nutrition-related commitments, they did not comply with best practice recommendations. A large proportion of sales was generated from ultra-processed/unhealthy products and QSR outlets increased. Government regulations are urgently needed.
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spelling pubmed-91982232022-06-16 Assessment of the Commitments and Performance of the European Food Industry to Improve Population Nutrition Van Dam, Iris Guillon, Emilie Robinson, Ella Allais, Olivier Sacks, Gary Vandevijvere, Stefanie Int J Public Health Public Health Archive Objectives: Food companies could play an important role in improving population diets, but often escape accountability through unspecific commitments. This study evaluated nutrition-related commitments and estimated performance of the largest packaged food and non-alcoholic beverage manufacturers, supermarkets and quick-service restaurants (QSR) in Europe. Methods: To quantitatively assess companies’ publicly available commitments in 2020, the “Business Impact Assessment on Obesity and Population Nutrition” was applied. The proportion of sales from ultra-processed and “unhealthy” food categories (product categories not-permitted to be marketed to children) and over time changes in the number of QSR transactions and QSR and supermarket outlets were calculated. Results: Company commitments fell short of best practice recommendations (median overall score of 21%, range: 1%–62%). Food and beverage companies generated 82% (15%–100%) and 58% (1%–100%) sales from ultra-processed and “unhealthy” products, respectively. The number of QSR outlets and transactions substantially increased in Europe since 2011, while QSR commitments to improve population nutrition remained limited. Conclusion: Whilst most companies made some nutrition-related commitments, they did not comply with best practice recommendations. A large proportion of sales was generated from ultra-processed/unhealthy products and QSR outlets increased. Government regulations are urgently needed. Frontiers Media S.A. 2022-06-01 /pmc/articles/PMC9198223/ /pubmed/35719734 http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/ijph.2022.1604116 Text en Copyright © 2022 Van Dam, Guillon, Robinson, Allais, Sacks and Vandevijvere. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) and the copyright owner(s) are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
spellingShingle Public Health Archive
Van Dam, Iris
Guillon, Emilie
Robinson, Ella
Allais, Olivier
Sacks, Gary
Vandevijvere, Stefanie
Assessment of the Commitments and Performance of the European Food Industry to Improve Population Nutrition
title Assessment of the Commitments and Performance of the European Food Industry to Improve Population Nutrition
title_full Assessment of the Commitments and Performance of the European Food Industry to Improve Population Nutrition
title_fullStr Assessment of the Commitments and Performance of the European Food Industry to Improve Population Nutrition
title_full_unstemmed Assessment of the Commitments and Performance of the European Food Industry to Improve Population Nutrition
title_short Assessment of the Commitments and Performance of the European Food Industry to Improve Population Nutrition
title_sort assessment of the commitments and performance of the european food industry to improve population nutrition
topic Public Health Archive
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9198223/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/35719734
http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/ijph.2022.1604116
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