The 7th edition of the EGEA conference was held within the EXPO in Milan and focused on "Healthy nutrition and environment in a balanced economy - the role of fruit and vegetables."
Session 6 was presided over by Fabio Gomes (Ministry of Health Officer INCA – Brasil) and focused on the policies and advertising tools to favour fruit and vegetable consumption.
The speakers table.
What about labelling? Fruit and vegetables are often in a weaker position due to the lack of budget, fragmentation of the sector, unbranding, etc.
Philippe Binard (General Delegate Freshfel Europe Brussels) says that "the various applicable regulations on commercialisation, food health, additives, nutrition and health are often considered excessive and non relevant or are not fully understood by consumers."
Philippe Binard
And what about processed products? Years ago, Freshel Europe commissioned a research to establish the effective fruit content in various food products that have a reference to fruit on their packaging or labelling. "Results are alarming - 1 product out of 5 does not contain fruit and 50% of samples contain less than 10% fruit."
Year after year, Freshfel registers the drops in consumption of fruit and vegetables all over Europe - two thirds of Member states are well below the minimum daily recommended ratio (400g/person/day).
"Communication, promotion, image, packaging and labelling must be used correctly to make consumers aware of their need to eat fruit and vegetables - it is a public/private responsibility."
Samuel Levie (Food Cabinet – The Netherlands) added that "on the one hand, billions are being spent on unhealthy food while, on the other hand, governments are spending billions for the fight against obesity and food diseases. The fact that promoting fresh produce is so hard is just absurd."
Samuel Levie.
Finally, Kelly Brownell (Dean of the Sanford School of Public Policy Duke University Durham – USA) explained how price control and other related policies can increase fruit and vegetable consumption.
Kelly Brownell and Philippe Binard.
"Economic incentives contribute to improving the health of man and the environment - taxes on products such as tobacco and alcohol considerably reduced sales and consumption, thus bringing positive results health-wise. In addition, the adoption of energy saving systems had positive effects on the environment. Changing the price of food products could be a way of promoting the consumption of healthy food: we could consider increasing the taxes of Sugar-Sweetened Beverage - some economists estimated that a 20% increase would reduce consumption by 15-20%."
The discussion on the taxation of unhealthy food led to an animated debate, because it may favour the consumption of healthy food but even increase the level of socio-economic inequality.
Contacts:
Fabio Gomes, fabiodasilvagomes@gmail.com
Philippe Binard, philippe@freshfel.org
Samuel Levie, samuel@foodcabinet.org
Kelly Brownell, kelly.brownell@duke.edu
Author: Emanuela Fontana
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