Obesity Governance D5 Overview of National
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OBESITY GOVERNANCE D5 OVERVIEW OF NATIONAL INITIATIVES AND PROGRAMMES Editor: Gun Roos Gun Roos, National Institute for Consumer Research, (SIFO) Norway P.O. Box 4682, Nydalen 0405 Oslo, Norway, e-mail: [email protected] Phone: +47 22043500, +47 22043565, Fax: +47 22043504 OBESITY GOVERNANCE Obesity Governance D5 2 Overview of National cases Obesity Governance D5 3 Overview of National cases Authors Eivind Stø, Unni Kjærnes, Kjersti Lillebø, Gun Roos and Siv Elin Ånestad, Norway Regina Wierzejska and Maciej Otarzewski, Poland Simone Baroke and Geof Rayner, UK Andreas Drichoutis and Achilleas Vassilopoulos, Greece Emese Gulyás, Hungary Bent Egberg Mikkelsen, Liselotte Hedegaard and Michael Søgaard Jørgensen, Denmark Maria Loureiro, Spain The Obesity Governance project has been made possible by the means of a financial contribution from the Programme of Community Action in the Field of Public Health 2003- 2008, of the European Commission. Obesity Governance D5 4 Overview of National cases Contents Introduction ................................................................................................................................6 Methods ......................................................................................................................................9 Country reports.........................................................................................................................11 CYPRUS...............................................................................................................................11 GREECE...............................................................................................................................16 ITALY ..................................................................................................................................23 MALTA................................................................................................................................26 PORTUGAL.........................................................................................................................33 SPAIN...................................................................................................................................36 AUSTRIA.............................................................................................................................40 BULGARIA..........................................................................................................................46 CZECH REPUBLIC.............................................................................................................51 GERMANY..........................................................................................................................52 HUNGARY ..........................................................................................................................61 POLAND..............................................................................................................................65 ROMANIA ...........................................................................................................................68 SLOVAKIA..........................................................................................................................73 SLOVENIA ..........................................................................................................................76 BELGIUM............................................................................................................................82 FRANCE ..............................................................................................................................87 THE REPUBLIC OF IRELAND .........................................................................................94 LUXEMBOURG................................................................................................................103 THE NETHERLANDS ......................................................................................................106 UNITED KINGDOM.........................................................................................................109 DENMARK........................................................................................................................124 ESTONIA ...........................................................................................................................131 FINLAND...........................................................................................................................134 LATVIA .............................................................................................................................138 LITHUANIA ......................................................................................................................139 NORWAY ..........................................................................................................................139 SWEDEN............................................................................................................................147 Conclusions 154 Obesity Governance D5 5 Overview of National cases Obesity Governance D5 6 Overview of National cases Introduction This report, Deliverable 5 of Work Package 4 of the Obesity Governance project, aims at giving a broad overview of public-private partnership initiatives to counteract obesity and overweight in EU and Norway. The Obesity Governance project focuses on public-private partnerships (PPP) around manufactured food as a means to counteract obesity and overweight in Europe. The project is a health promotion project funded by the Health and Consumer Protection Directorate General (DG SANCO) of the European Commission. The main objective of the project is to study innovative approaches, such as industry involvement and public-private partnership initiatives, to counteract obesity and overweight in Europe, particularly through reformulation of manufactured food. The aim of Work Package 4 (WP4) is to identify and analyse national and local initiatives in reformulation of manufactured food in the EU27 and Norway, with the main focus on governance; the relationship between the political authorities on the one hand and the initiatives by the food industries and retailers on the other. The overview will also aim at identifying promising cases of public-private partnetships that will be selected for further analysis of best practices from a governance perspective (WP5). Obesity and overweight have grown in Europe. According to the report Health at a Glance: Europe 2010 1, the rate of obesity has more than doubled over the part 20 years in most EU countries, and over half of the adult population in EU are now overweight or obese. On average, 15.5% of the EU adult population is obese. The lowest rates are found in Romaina (7.9%), Italy (9.9%), Norway (10.0) and the highest in UK (24.5%), Ireland (23.0%) and Malta (22.3%). A study of food and nutrition policies in Europe (21 participating countries) showed that most of the countries have intersectorial food and nutrition policies (all 21 countries reported having a specific food and nutrition policy except Greece, Poland and Portugal, which reported having nutrition-related programs).2 All countries reported that they have included prevention of obesity in their policies. In the case of counteracting obesity and overweight the role of industry and trade organisations has increasingly been attracting attention and at the pan-European level the European Platform for Action on Diet, Physical activity and Health has become a central focus of activity. There is a growing acceptance, confirmed at the Istanbul Ministerial Summit, that wider factors need to be taken into account if effective promotion of healthy eating is to be achieved. Public health experts have mostly been sceptical about the role that industry could play in supporting healthier eating habits. It has been argued that food industry will seek to maximise value and thus will tend to use marketing of unhealthy products and thus influence dietary habits in a negative way.3 1 Health at a Glance Europe 2010, OECD (2010), OECD Publishing. http://ec.europa.eu/health/reports/docs/health_glance_en.pdf 2 Elmadfa, I., ed. 2009. European nutrition and health report 2009. Forum of Nutrition Vol. 62. Basel: Karger 3 See for example: Nestle, M. 2003. Food politics: How the food industry influences nutrition and health. Berkeley: California Press. Lang, T. and M. Heasman. 2004. Food wars, the global battle of mouths, minds and markets. London:Earthscam Obesity Governance D5 7 Overview of National cases Support for closer involvement of stakeholders including NGOs, civil society and the private commercial sector can be found in policy papers on nutrition and healthy eating from the EU and WHO. Both governments and food trade associations have launched initiatives and policy papers on corporate nutritional responsibility and partnership approaches to healthy eating.4 The main private actors are the food industry and retailers, but also non-governmetal organisations (NGOs) play an important role. In some countries public authorities are regarded as the driving force in regaulation, while corporate involvement and self-regaulation is more predominant in others. Policy outcomes include initiatives aimed at improving healthy eating, such as product innovation, public and private labelling schemes, campaigns and education programmes and marketing programmes (for example, code on food