Is Legislation the only effective way to get the food industry to reformulate foods

The overall aim of this project was to understand the most effective way of engaging the food industry to reformulate the content of foods and meals. 

Methods

A comprehensive review of existing international initiatives to engage the food industry to reformulate foods or meals, through establishing standards to measure and label salt content. The review looked into voluntary and legislated food content information, analysing ‘front of pack’ labelling schemes. 

Initiatives were categorised in relation to pre-defined criteria, including: governance, dialogues between different groups, government-led voluntary agreements, government-led legislation or NGO-led initiatives. 

This was then followed up by assessment of initiatives in relation to actual nutrient content of foods. The Global Branded Food Composition Database established by The George Institute was used as part of this process. 

Status

Completed