Reformulation across Europe

Peer reviewed / Manuscript (original) received: 17 December 2019 / Revision accepted: 23 April 2020

An overview on planned and implemented strategies in European countries other than Germany, part 1

Introduction

Cardiovascular diseases account for more than half of all deaths in Europe, over 60 million people in Europe have diabetes and in many European countries the number of obese people has tripled in the last 30 years [1]. In the past, the prevention of these diet-related diseases was mainly based on information, consumer education and campaigns so as to influence individual nutritional behaviour in a favourable way.

Such measures are part of behavioural prevention. Nowadays, numerous European countries are formulating and/or implementing health policy measures to change the nutritional environment [2], hence these measures address environmental prevention. One such instrument is the introduction of product reformulation measures. These measures change the composition of highly processed foods with the aim of improving the products offered to the consumer in a sustainable way [3]. This approach corresponds to ”changing the default": the targeted reduction of ingredients such as sugar, salt and/or saturated fats can reduce the intake of these nutrients even when maintaining current dietary habits [4].

Abstract

Health promotion and prevention of diet-related diseases in Germany have so far focused mainly on nutrition education. Internationally, however, a variety of measures are already implemented aiming at changes in the nutritional environment. These include so-called reformulation strategies to improve the nutritional composition of foods offered. Part 1 provides a systematic overview of strategies currently formulated in European countries outside Germany and their implementation.

Keywords: Health promotion, Public Health Nutrition, reformulation, sugar, salt, fat, energy

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