The purpose of this study is to open the debate on the European state of art on the nutritional and market tools implemented by public policies. Improvement of mortality rate from Non-Communicable Disease (which are very much linked to nutrition habits) has gained relevance at the UN level, with one of the Sustainable Development Goal for 2030 (n. 3.4) dedicated explicitly “to reduce by one third premature mortality from non-communicable diseases through prevention and treatment and promote mental health and well-being”.
The major drivers of health problems related to nutritional habits and nutrients intakes are analysed in the following pages, and the consequent public policies that States (European and non) have used to limit the health consequences of unbalanced diets. In doing so, we tried to keep an open approach, using peer-reviewed articles to support our conclusion.We found that the most effective tool that governments could implement is educational programmes to the wider population (notably targeting the youth), in combination with educational initiatives such as Front of Package labelling on packaged food[1]. On the latter, this paper analyses the advantages and shortcomings of current systems, and advances some guidelines for further development of the tool.
[1] To this respect, the European Commission, in its Farm to Fork Strategy, advanced the initiative to have a harmonized European labelling system. Legislative proposal is expected to be drafted in 2022.
O artigo foi publicado originalmente em Farm Europe.
