EXPRESS: The Gift of Data: Industry-Led Food Reformulation and the Obesity Crisis in Europe

2020 ◽  
pp. 074391562098384
Author(s):  
Norah Campbell ◽  
Sarah Browne ◽  
Marius Claudy ◽  
Melissa Mialon ◽  
Hercberg Serge ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Public Health ◽  
Food Industry ◽  
Processed Food ◽  
Policy Makers ◽  
Intelligence System ◽  
Gift Economy ◽  
Nutrition Policies ◽  
The Gift ◽  
Marketing Intelligence ◽  
The Impact

Ultra-processed food manufacturers have proposed that product reformulation should be a key strategy to tackle obesity. In determining the impact of reformulation on population dietary behaviours, policy makers are often dependant on data provided by these manufacturers. Where such data are “gifted” to regulators there may be an implicit expectation of reciprocity that adversely influences nutrition policies. We sought to assess Europe’s industry-led reformulation strategy in five countries deploying critical policy studies as an approach. We found that interim results on industry-led food reformulation did not meet their targets. Information asymmetries exist between food industry and policy makers: the latter are not privy to marketing intelligence and must instead rely on data that are voluntarily donated by food industry actors. These data represent a distorted snippet of the marketing intelligence system from whence they came. Because these data indeed bear all the hallmarks of a gift, regulatory and public health authorities operate within a gift economy. The implications of this “data gift economy” are strategic delay and goal-setting when the field is not visible. Ultimately, this could diminish the implementation of public health nutrition policies that are contrary to the commercial interests of ultra-processed food producers.

scholarly journals A stochastic time-delayed model for the effectiveness of Moroccan COVID-19 deconfinement strategy

2020 ◽  
Vol 15 ◽  
pp. 50 ◽  
Author(s):  
Houssine Zine ◽  
Adnane Boukhouima ◽  
El Mehdi Lotfi ◽  
Marouane Mahrouf ◽  
Delfim F.M. Torres ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Public Health ◽  
Health Administration ◽  
Policy Makers ◽  
Public Health Administration ◽  
Additional Degree ◽  
Epidemiological Trend ◽  
The Impact ◽  
Near Future ◽  
Stochastic Time ◽  
Delayed Model

Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) poses a great threat to public health and the economy worldwide. Currently, COVID-19 evolves in many countries to a second stage, characterized by the need for the liberation of the economy and relaxation of the human psychological effects. To this end, numerous countries decided to implement adequate deconfinement strategies. After the first prolongation of the established confinement, Morocco moves to the deconfinement stage on May 20, 2020. The relevant question concerns the impact on the COVID-19 propagation by considering an additional degree of realism related to stochastic noises due to the effectiveness level of the adapted measures. In this paper, we propose a delayed stochastic mathematical model to predict the epidemiological trend of COVID-19 in Morocco after the deconfinement. To ensure the well-posedness of the model, we prove the existence and uniqueness of a positive solution. Based on the large number theorem for martingales, we discuss the extinction of the disease under an appropriate threshold parameter. Moreover, numerical simulations are performed in order to test the efficiency of the deconfinement strategies chosen by the Moroccan authorities to help the policy makers and public health administration to make suitable decisions in the near future.

Cancer control planning

2016 ◽  
pp. 245-255
Author(s):  
Massoud Samiei
Keyword(s):  
Public Health ◽  
Cancer Control ◽  
Policy Makers ◽  
Control Plan ◽  
The Public ◽  
Cancer Data ◽  
Governmental Organizations ◽  
Non Governmental Organizations ◽  
The Impact ◽  
National Cancer Control Plan

Despite all the progress made in cancer research and in the fight against cancer, the disease cannot be completely eradicated in the foreseeable future. A logical public health measure must therefore focus all efforts on preventing and confining the disease, i.e. a systematic and coordinated approach to reduce the impact of cancer on populations. Such an organised approach is called cancer control. It forms part of a holistic and coordinated approach, called a national cancer control plan/ programme (NCCP), involving the public sector, non-governmental organizations, academia, and the private sector. Policy makers and cancer advocacy groups should consider cancer control planning, and its financing and implementation, a public health necessity and not an option. The model proposed here is a hybrid one. The success of cancer control planning depends greatly on the availability and functionality of local cancer data and knowledge, in addition to adequate resources and government commitment.

scholarly journals Nutrient profiling for product reformulation: public health impact and benefits for the consumer

2017 ◽  
Vol 76 (3) ◽  
pp. 255-264 ◽  
Author(s):  
Undine Lehmann ◽  
Véronique Rheiner Charles ◽  
Antonis Vlassopoulos ◽  
Gabriel Masset ◽  
Jörg Spieldenner
Keyword(s):  
Public Health ◽  
Food Industry ◽  
Dietary Habits ◽  
Food Product ◽  
Cost Effective ◽  
Health Impact ◽  
Dietary Intakes ◽  
Nutrient Profiling ◽  
Multi Stakeholder ◽  
The Impact

The food industry holds great potential for driving consumers to adopt healthy food choices as (re)formulation of foods can improve the nutritional quality of these foods. Reformulation has been identified as a cost-effective intervention in addressing non-communicable diseases as it does not require significant alterations of consumer behaviour and dietary habits. Nutrient profiling (NP), the science of categorizing foods based on their nutrient composition, has emerged as an essential tool and is implemented through many different profiling systems to guide reformulation and other nutrition policies. NP systems should be adapted to their specific purposes as it is not possible to design one system that can equally address all policies and purposes, e.g. reformulation and labelling. The present paper discusses some of the key principles and specificities that underlie a NP system designed for reformulation with the example of the Nestlé nutritional profiling system. Furthermore, the impact of reformulation at the level of the food product, dietary intakes and public health are reviewed. Several studies showed that food and beverage reformulation, guided by a NP system, may be effective in improving population nutritional intakes and thereby its health status. In order to achieve its maximum potential and modify the food environment in a beneficial manner, reformulation should be implemented by the entire food sector. Multi-stakeholder partnerships including governments, food industry, retailers and consumer associations that will state concrete time-bound objectives accompanied by an independent monitoring system are the potential solution.

scholarly journals Nutrition policy in whose interests? A New Zealand case study

2011 ◽  
Vol 15 (8) ◽  
pp. 1483-1488 ◽  
Author(s):  
Gabrielle Jenkin ◽  
Louise Signal ◽  
George Thomson
Keyword(s):  
Public Health ◽  
New Zealand ◽  
Food Industry ◽  
Nutrition Policy ◽  
Advertising Industry ◽  
Obesity Epidemic ◽  
Nutrition Policies ◽  
The Government ◽  
Industry Policy

AbstractObjectiveIn the context of the global obesity epidemic, national nutrition policies have come under scrutiny. The present paper examines whose interests – industry or public health – are served by these policies and why.DesignUsing an exemplary case study of submissions to an inquiry into obesity, the research compared the positions of industry and public health groups with that taken by government. We assessed whether the interests were given equal consideration (a pluralist model of influence) or whether the interests of one group were favoured over the other (a neo-pluralist model).Setting2006 New Zealand Inquiry into Obesity.SubjectsFood and advertising industry and public health submitters.ResultsThe Government's position was largely aligned with industry interests in three of four policy domains: the national obesity strategy; food industry policy; and advertising and marketing policies. The exception to this was nutrition policy in schools, where the Government's position was aligned with public health interests. These findings support the neo-pluralist model of interest group influence.ConclusionsThe dominance of the food industry in national nutrition policy needs to be addressed. It is in the interests of the public, industry and the state that government regulates the food and advertising industries and limits the involvement of industry in policy making. Failure to do so will be costly for individuals, in terms of poor health and earlier death, costly to governments in terms of the associated health costs, and costly to both the government and industry due to losses in human productivity.

scholarly journals Aiming for Intrasectorality: Public Safety and Health

10.3823/2595 ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 12 ◽  
Author(s):  
Luiz Fernando de Lima Paulo ◽  
Marco Akerman
Keyword(s):  
Public Health ◽  
Health And Safety ◽  
Sao Paulo ◽  
Western Region ◽  
São Paulo ◽  
Significance Level ◽  
Intelligence System ◽  
Qualitative Variables ◽  
The Impact ◽  
Public Health And Safety

         Question: Are Public policies that contemplate intrasectorality capable of producing better results for society, public health and safety?           Design: Descriptive study with data analysis from September 2014 to December 2015.           Participants: Civil and Military Police of São Paulo State (western region of São Paulo City).           Intervention: Analysis of criminal indicators of public health interest in the western region of São Paulo City during the period of applicability of intrasectorality as public health and safety policy.           Outcome measures: analysis of the management model and record of reports interesting to public health. The first analysis was carried out in 3 police districts, later spreading to the entire western region of São Paulo City.           Qualitative variables were based on the International Code of Diseases (ICD). The quantitative results obtained were extracted from the Criminal Intelligence System.           Data were analyzed using descriptive statistics with a significance level of 95%. The software used was the bioestat 5.0 for windows.           Results: There was a reduction of 4% to 44% in criminal indicators of public health interest.           Conclusion: Intrasectorality was able to improve public health outcomes when used as public policy in police institutions, reducing the impact of violence on public health.

scholarly journals Individual behaviours and COVID-19 lockdown exit strategy: a mid-term multidimensional bio-economic modelling approach

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ahmed Ferchiou ◽  
Remy Bornet ◽  
Guillaume Lhermie ◽  
Didier Raboisson
Keyword(s):  
Public Health ◽  
Transmission Rate ◽  
Well Being ◽  
Optimization Approach ◽  
Economic Modelling ◽  
Policy Makers ◽  
Professional Characteristics ◽  
Age Structured ◽  
Age Structured Model ◽  
The Impact

Abstract As of mid-2020, eradicating COVID-19 seems not to be an option, at least in the short term. The challenge for policy makers consists of implementing a suitable approach to contain the outbreak and limit extra deaths without exhausting healthcare forces while mitigating the impact on the country's economy and on individuals’ well-being. To better describe the trade-off between the economic, societal and public health dimensions, we developed an integrated bioeconomic optimization approach. We built a discrete age-structured model considering three main populations (youth, adults and seniors) and 8 socio-professional characteristics for the adults. Fifteen lockdown exit strategies were simulated for several options: abrupt or progressive (4 or 8 weeks) lockdown lift followed by total definitive transitory final unlocking. Three values of transmission rate (Tr) were considered to represent individuals’ barrier gesture compliance. Optimization under constraint to find the best combination of scenarios and options was performed on the minimal total cost for production losses due to contracted activities and hospitalization in the short and mid-term, with 3 criteria: mortality, person-days locked and hospital saturation. The results clearly show little difference between the scenarios based on the economic impact or the 3 criteria. This means that policy makers should focus on individuals’ behaviours (represented by the Tr value) more than on trying to optimize the lockdown strategy (defining who is unlocked and who is locked). For a given Tr, the choices of scenarios permit the management of the hospital saturation level with regard to both its intensity and its duration, which remains a key point for public health. The results highlight the need for behavioural or experimental economics to address COVID-19 issues through a better understanding of individual behaviour motivations and the identification of ways to improve biosecurity compliance.

Processed Foods as an Integral Part of Universal Salt Iodization Programs: A Review of Global Experience and Analyses of Bangladesh and Pakistan

2012 ◽  
Vol 33 (4_suppl3) ◽  
pp. S272-S280 ◽  
Author(s):  
Rebecca Spohrer ◽  
Greg S. Garrett ◽  
Arnold Timmer ◽  
Rajan Sankar ◽  
Basanta Kar ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Developing Countries ◽  
Food Industry ◽  
Developed Countries ◽  
Iodized Salt ◽  
Processed Foods ◽  
Processed Food ◽  
Face To Face ◽  
Salt Iodization ◽  
Original Definition ◽  
The Impact

Background Despite the reference to salt for food processing in the original definition of universal salt iodization (USI), national USI programs often do not explicitly address food industry salt. This may affect program impact and sustainability, given the increasing consumption of processed foods in developing countries. Objective To review experience of the use of iodized salt in the food industry globally, and analyze the market context in Bangladesh and Pakistan to test whether this experience may be applicable to inform improved national USI programming in developing countries. Methods A review of relevant international experience was undertaken. In Bangladesh and Pakistan, local rural market surveys were carried out. In Bangladesh, structured face-to-face interviews with bakers and indepth interviews with processed food wholesalers and retailers were conducted. In Pakistan, face-to-face structured interviews were conducted with food retailers and food labels were checked. Results Experience from industrialized countries reveals impact resulting from the use of iodized salt in the food industry. In Bangladesh and Pakistan, bread, biscuits, and snacks containing salt are increasingly available in rural areas. In Bangladesh, the majority of bakers surveyed claimed to use iodized salt. In Pakistan, 6 of 362 unique product labels listed iodized salt. Conclusions Successful experience from developed countries needs to be adapted to the developing country context. The increasing availability of processed foods in rural Bangladesh and Pakistan provides an opportunity to increase iodine intake. However, the impact of this intervention remains to be quantified. To develop better national USI programs, further data are required on processed food consumption across population groups, iodine contents of food products, and the contribution of processed foods to iodine nutrition.

scholarly journals Parental Food Choices and Engagement in Raising Children’s Awareness of Sustainable Behaviors in Urban Poland

2021 ◽  
Vol 18 (6) ◽  
pp. 3225
Author(s):  
Ewa Halicka ◽  
Joanna Kaczorowska ◽  
Krystyna Rejman ◽  
Agata Szczebyło
Keyword(s):  
Public Health ◽  
Food Consumption ◽  
Urban Areas ◽  
Food Systems ◽  
Environmentally Friendly ◽  
Food Choices ◽  
Sustainable Food ◽  
Nutrition Policies ◽  
Consumption Practices ◽  
The Impact

Promoting sustainable food consumption patterns and understanding factors driving environmentally-friendly food choices is one of the challenges of public health nutrition policies in the 2020s and crucial for the future wellbeing of humans, food systems and the planet as a whole. To assess the impact of sustainability issues on the behaviors of parents living with young school-aged children in Poland a CAWI survey of 1035 adults in urban areas was conducted. A clustering procedure revealed that two of the identified clusters (73% of the sample) rated sustainability factors as important when purchasing food for children but only one of these clusters (29% of the sample) was actively engaged in raising their child’s awareness about sustainable behaviors. The third cluster (27% of the sample) had no intentions to teach their children about food sustainability because of lack of time or distrust in these topics. More than 80% of the sample agreed that parents share a responsibility in teaching children about the links between food, health and environment. Principles of healthy and sustainable diets should be incorporated into public health programmes to empower family members to engage in raising their children’s awareness and adopt more healthy and environmentally-friendly food consumption practices.

Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document