Obesity and overweight issues

Croation EPHA member NET+ Association started the "Healthy Eco Life” project for innovative promotion of health and ecology for primary school children in Croatia and Slovenia.
The project takes a creative, learning-by-doing approach that includes a one day visit to an eco farm where children can gain experience in growing organic vegetables and taking care of domestic animals.
This action is granted by the Executive Agency for Health and Consumers, within the Health Programme 2009. (...)

On 10 February 2010, EPHA sent an open letter to the Romanian Government responding to the announcement to examine a proposal for an initiative on ’junk food’ taxation, which would impact on foods that are high in fats, salt, sugars and additives. EPHA supports this proposal as a bold move to tackle the epidemic of overweight, obesity and diet-related diseases in Europe.
Romania, like many European countries, has been greatly affected by the burden of obesity ; one in four people suffer (...)

On 7 December the EPHA secretariat attended a workshop organised by the European Commission Directorate-General for Information Society and Media (DG INFSO) on advertising to children regarding food high in fat, salt or sugar (HFSS food).
Background
The 2007 Audiovisual Media service Directive (AVMS Directive) amended the former “Television without Frontiers”Directive.
The 2007 Directive introduced Article 3e (2), which states that governments and the Commission must (...)

International Association for the Study of Obesity and BEUC have released several country reports from its PolMark project on obesity in the EU.
Being overweight and the level of obesity are increasing in Europe, especially amongst children. In order to improve the understanding of the influences on children’s dietary choices and nutritional status, the International Association for the Study of Obesity (IASO) and BEUC conducted the PolMark project (Policy options for Marketing Food (...)

In response to the European Commission’s Proposal for a Regulation on the Provision of Food Information to Consumers, EPHA has developed a position with input from its members. EPHA recommends a mandatory European labelling scheme on the front and back of pack, with a traffic light system providing an intepretative element to help consumers make the healthiest choice.
Background on the Commission proposal
The new proposal combines two Directives (Dir 2000/13/EC and Dir 90/496/EEC) into one (...)

The results from two recently-published studies indicate that a traffic light label on the front of package is the best way to facilitate accurate interpretation of key nutritional information and therefore enable consumers to make informed choices about the food they purchase.
The findings of these studies are particularly relevant given that the proposed Regulation on the Provision of Food Information to Consumers is currently being considered by the European institutions.
The traffic (...)

It is anticipated that the presentation of the highly controversial draft rules on health and nutrition claims on food packaging will be postponed until late 2009. Aside from the intense Industry lobbying, at a political level, Commission officials from DG Enterprise and DG Agriculture have also objected to certain elements in the DG SANCO proposal.
There are concerns among health campaigners that if this level of political conflict continues, the public health objectives of the Regulation (...)

On 3 April 2009, the members of the Platform convened to discuss two main issues- the monitoring of the members’ commitments to the Platform and the reformulation of food products. In addition, a new case study on the impact of the European Platform for Action on Diet, Physical Activity and Health, developed by the IESE Business School in Barcelona, was presented.
Members’ Commitments and Reporting
The guidelines for reporting and submitting commitments has been updated for 2010.
From (...)

For your information : Please visit this WHO Website where you will find the report of the dialogue with the commercial sector, which took place on 24 November 2008 in Geneva a few days after a similar dialogue was held with NGOs. The dialogue is part of the process currently being undertaken by the WHO in order to develop of recommendations on the marketing of foods and non-alcoholic beverages to children. The diagram below is useful to understand the process underway, which forms part of (...)

On 17 September 2008, EPHA attended the plenary meeting of the EU Platform on Diet, Physical Activity and Health.
The focus of this session was physical activity and the meeting provided an opportunity to discuss the recent activities of the Commission and to hear presentations from both platform members and guest speakers. The presentations focused on ’health enhancing physical activity.’ Afterwards the floor was opened for a debate where stakeholders’ proposals and commitments to physical (...)