- - Brussels, 30 november 2005

Table of Contents

• Euro Coop Action Tools For Promoting Healthy Lifestyles
  
  
• 'LESSONS TO BE LEARNED' From The EU Platform For Action On Diet, Physical Activity And Health
  
  
• Euro Coop Action Plan For 2006
  
  
  • FENACOOP - PORTUGAL
  • FDB - DENMARK
  • THE CO-OPERATIVE GROUP - UNITED KINGDOM
  • ANCC/COOP - ITALY
  • KF - SWEDEN
  • EROSKI - SPAIN
  • HISPACOOP - SPAIN
  • SOK AND INEX - FINLAND

EURO COOP ACTION TOOLS FOR PROMOTING HEALTHY LIFESTYLES

EURO COOP member organisations have always been fully dedicated to consumer health. Since the '70s consumer education and information on human nutrition have been at the core of their activities. The nature of consumer cooperatives, as consumer-owned organisations run in the interest of the general public, makes EURO COOP member organisations well-placed actors to spread the seed of healthy lifestyles.

Regarding consumer information, EURO COOP member organisations mainly rely on tools such as consumer-member magazines, leaflets and, more recently, web sites and other media. These tools allow consumers to access nutrition information that is based on sound science.

Labelling is another channel through which nutrition information can be communicated to consumers. Values of nutrients, but also information targeted to consumers with specific dietary needs are increasingly necessary to empower consumers to make appropriate and informed dietary choices. Nutrition information should be therefore systematically appearing on food packaging to achieve this objective.

In this respect, EURO COOP member organisations understand that nutrition information is often displayed and expressed in ways that are not readily understood by consumers. A simplified system to communicate nutrition messages to consumers, such as the HIGH, MEDIUM and LOW descriptors adopted by the UK Co-operative Group, needs therefore to be researched and adopted.

In addition to that, it is a fact that foods can be advertised and presented in ways that may mislead consumers. For example, stressing the positive nutritional characteristics of a product while omitting the negative ones is not unusual. Likewise, constant and catchy food advertising addressed to children and adolescents can significantly influence their dietary choices and can lead to pressurising parents through the so-called 'pester power'. In this context, alongside favouring the adoption of EU rules for the regulation of health and nutrition claims on foods and of fortification practices, EURO COOP member organisations believe food operators should behave responsibly when it comes to the content and the volume of food advertisement. That is why some of EURO COOP' s member organisations have decided to take steps in this area and have introduced blanket bans on commercial communication of their own products that are high in fats, sugar and salt (HFSS) to children.

EURO COOP member organisations also believe that consumer education i.e. the development of the ability to understand and process information relating to consumer products is another key area where serious efforts should be made. Education has to address the general public. A particular attention, however, should be paid to children: their natural attitude for learning is in fact a not-to-miss opportunity to make them more aware as tomorrow's consumers. Although education remains a full competence of national governments, in the case of nutrition and health EURO COOP member organisations believe the involvement of key stakeholders as well as the establishment of stakeholders' partnerships may significantly help spread healthy messages at regional and local level.

Product reformulation is another key area where EURO COOP member organisations have undertaken some actions. At present much work is going on across EURO COOP member organisations' own brand lines in order to develop a nutrition policy with a view of progressively reducing, or replacing, those nutrients that are known to have deleterious effect on health.

'LESSONS TO BE LEARNED' FROM THE EU PLATFORM FOR ACTION ON DIET, PHYSICAL ACTIVITY AND HEALTH

On the basis of the activities carried -out by its member organisations and, above all, further to the discussions that throughout the year have taken place within the European Platform for Action on Diet, Physical Activity and Health, EURO COOP member organisations believe that a number of guiding principles and best practices for promoting healthier lifestyles can now be singled out for each of the above-mentioned intervention areas.

1. Consumer education - Education related to nutrition and health should start at an early stage and ideally combine learning with practical experience. The responsibility for education matters lies in the hands of national public authorities. Nevertheless, some stakeholders can be well placed to play a role in educating consumers. The content of stakeholders' educational programmes and tools should reflect well-established findings in the area of diet and health and be based on sound science.
2. Information campaigns and materials - Contents of information campaigns, consumer -magazines, leaflets, web-based tools etc., when used for providing information on diet and health, should reflect well-established facts in the area of diet and health and be based on sound science.
3. Nutrition labelling - At present, on-pack labelling represents the most practical tool to provide consumers with nutrition information about the food products they buy. Food operators should therefore adopt nutrition labelling as broadly as possible across their own brands, waiting for the EU to make it compulsory and more consumer-friendly.
4. Food signposting - The need of communicating nutrition information to consumers in a simplified way is becoming increasingly strong. Research in the area of food signposting should be therefore encouraged with a view to delivering tools that would allow consumers to easily identify healthy alternatives.
5. Commercial communication - Alongside those areas that are covered - or will be covered - by law, food operators should increasingly develop responsible corporate policies in the area of food marketing and advertising. In particular, industry stakeholders should implement, as broadly as possible, self-regulation measures considering bans on commercial communications to children of HFSS foods.
6. Products composition - Food operators should promote research and development to investigate possible ways of reducing or replacing fats, sugar and salt across their brands with a view to offering consumers healthier product choices.
7. Partnership - Tackling obesity requires a multi-stakeholder approach. Partnerships amongst stakeholders may allow the best possible use of the existing resources as well as coordination of the conveyed messages. Development and implementation of partnerships should be therefore encouraged at EU, national and local level.

EURO COOP member organisations believe that the set of principles outlined above should inform the future actions deployed by the members of the European Platform for Action on Diet, Physical Activity and Health.

In this respect, in order to make the contribution of the EU Platform to the promotion of healthy lifestyles truly effective, EURO COOP member organisations support the principles according to which:

• Future commitments should add to the fight against obesity, having regard to the nature of the activities carried-out by the various Platform members;


• Future commitments must be undertaken by the national member organisations of the Platform members;


• Future commitments must be shaped in such a way as to allow proper monitoring.

EURO COOP ACTION PLAN FOR 2006

Fully aware of being a critical link between European and national public authorities, food manufacturers and consumers, and in tune with the policies so far developed, the co-operative movement commits with the present document to continuing its work on the areas highlighted above and to developing new initiatives and partnerships where appropriate. Against this background, EURO COOP member organisations would like to share with the members of the European Platform for Action on Diet, Physical Activity and Health their Action Plan for 2006.

FENACOOP - Portugal

FENACOOP, Fedaraçao Nacional das Cooperativas de Consumidores, plans to confirm some of the actions already launched in recent years. In particular, another cycle of 'Consumer Lessons' will take place in coops' outlets with the aim of increasing consumers' participation. FENACOOP will then continue to devote adequate space to articles on healthy lifestyles and on the importance of a balanced diet and regular exercising in its consumer-member magazine Ecoop. The magazine is already including updates on the developments of the European Platform for Action on Diet, Physical Activity and Health.

In 2006 FENACOOP plans to run also some new initiatives. Firstly, it will organise a seminar on healthy dietary habits targeting the general public. Secondly, FENACOOP will launch a pilot project offering its consumer-members tailor-made consultations in one of its outlets with the support of qualified nutritionists. Finally, another pilot project regarding food signposting - 'Nutritional Route' - will be run next year. It will consist in labelling with different colours various food items with a view to promoting their consumption or recommending a moderate consumption on a case-by-case basis.

FDB - Denmark

FDB, Faellesfoeningen for Danmarks Brugsforeninger, will confirm many of the activities that have already taken place in the past years such as the 'Mobile Kitchen' and the 'Consumer Jungle'. A new version of the 'Danish Championship on sport and spinach' - a 2-month programme that sees schoolchildren competing in order to make the best combination between the healthiest food package and the best game from the point of view of physical activity - is currently under preparation. In 2004, 20 000 pupils took part in this programme for a total of 200 000 hours of course.

Alongside the actions that have been confirmed, FDB plans to launch in 2006 a new 1-day educational programme involving schoolchildren. This programme takes place in an open-air museum where old buildings and outlets, including a coop shop, are accurately reproduced. There, children are first taught about how food habits were in everyday life 200 years ago and then invited to compare with today's diets. Afterwards, with the support of cameras and computers, they are requested to make a report for the daily news. This exercise aims at pushing children to reflect about changes in food consumption all over the years and to understand to what extent societal factors such as technology, research and culture can determine these changes.

FDB also plans to campaign on the promotion of physical activity and to organise a number of raising-awareness events on healthy lifestyles across the country.

The Co-operative Group - United Kingdom

The Co-operative Group will continue the actions outlined in its baseline document.

The Co-operative Group is therefore committed to maintaining its responsible policy on marketing and advertising to children of HFSS foods. Accordingly, Co-op brand's food products falling into this category will continue not to be advertised in children's viewing hours and in children's titles. In addition to that, these products will keep on not being displayed in the checkout areas in order to avoid triggering a 'pester power' effect on children while their parents are queuing to pay.

Clear and comprehensive nutrition information displayed on the packaging of its food items, with HIGH, MEDIUM, and LOW descriptors to help consumer understanding, remains a core principle of the Co-op Group's nutrition policy. This is complemented by the declaration of calorie content on all alcoholic drinks.

Regarding product reformulation, the Co-operative Group is committed to continuing the reduction of salt and fat across Co-op brands products. The Co-op Group's goal on salt reduction is to meet the UK Food Standard Agency targets for salt (as set in 2004) across al products by September 2009. In some key areas identified by the Food Standard Agency such as ready meals, pizzas, pies and pasta sauces, the targets will be met by September 2006. On fat reduction the Co-operative Group has taken on board the latest advice from the UK Food Standard Agency to focus on saturates rather than total fats. The Co-operative Group plans to finalise a comprehensive policy on this point once the Food Standard Agency will have published its strategy in this regard. In the meanwhile, the Co-operative Group plans to reduce saturates without increasing either total or trans fat and to remove/replace hydrogenated fat wherever possible.

ANCC/Coop - Italy

In 2006 Coop Italia plans to launch an information campaign on a national scale with a view to raising awareness about healthy lifestyles. In so doing, Coop intends adding to the current fight against obesity at EU-Level and further consolidating its reputation of organisation fully devoted to consumers' welfare.

The campaign will target consumer-members, the general public, children (especially those aged from 8 to 13) and their families. It will fully involve the scientific community to provide consumers with scientifically sound messages. In principle, messages will be developed taking into account the specific needs of the different consumer groups. For this purpose, a Scientific Committee, i.e. a team of high-profile national experts in nutrition sciences, will be established early next year to elaborate the contents that will constitute the background to the various activities of the campaign. In addition to that, the campaign will aim at pushing other stakeholders to commit to tackling obesity by setting-up partnerships at regional and local level. Public authorities, food operators, schools and media will therefore play a major role in the campaign development.

Concerning the campaign activities for 2006, Coop plans to raise awareness about healthy lifestyles through various information and education tools. Leaflets and other materials will be made available to consumers in the information points located in the Coop's outlets. In addition to that, several articles about healthy diets will appear on Coop's consumer-magazines and a section devoted to the campaign will be created on Coop's official website. Finally, Coop plans to develop a new set of educational materials to distribute to schools.

In 2006 Coop will also organise two major single events. The first one will be a scientific workshop scheduled for next April. This workshop aims at gathering national food and nutrition experts and other relevant stakeholders to discuss the causes of the current obesity epidemic and to look, in particular, at the Italian experience. The second one will be a 1-day event taking place throughout the country, i.e. the 'Obesity Day'. This event, which is scheduled for June 2006, will try to raise awareness about the benefits of combining a balanced diet with regular exercising. It will involve as many Coop' s outlets as possible and will consist in various information and education activities carried-out with the support of highly qualified health professionals. That day, while shopping, consumers will be offered, inter alia, tailor-made consultations about diet and health, medical check-ups and discounts for gyms. Finally, in tune with Coop's long-standing experience in schoolchildren educational programmes, activities that combine playing and learning about healthy lifestyles will be offered to children visiting the Coop's outlets.

On the product development side, Coop plans to finalise the elimination of hydrogenated fats across its food line in 2006. Coop will also bring forward its tropical fats' reduction programme with a view to limiting the intake of saturates fats.

Coop also plans to launch a pilot project on food signposting in order to look into practical and effective ways to communicate nutrition and diet information to consumers. Alongside the 2006 campaign, Coop confirms all its current actions in its baseline document for the EU Platform for Action on Diet, Physical Activity and Health. Children education, consumer information, reformulation of Coop's food items with a view to looking for healthier solutions, and nutrition labelling remain key components of Coop's policy on health and nutrition.

KF - Sweden

Healthy diet is a theme common to the co-operative movement in Sweden, Denmark and Norway for 2005 and 2006.

The Swedish co-operative KF is much focussing on consumer information and has planned to run four national campaigns both in 2005 and in 2006. The themes chosen for 2005 relate to healthy nutrition for children, food and satiety, food supplements and the 'Green Xmas' i.e. vegetarian and ecological alternatives for Christmas. The four topics selected for 2006 regard the multicultural aspects of labelling, food labelling, sustainable food consumption and the benefits of physical activity.

For each theme an information leaflet is published in over 250 000 copies, delivered home to consumer-members and distributed in the Co-op's outlets and in schools. The leaflets are also made available on line on KF's official website. KF's campaigns usually include seminars and training courses for consumers.

Eroski - Spain

Eroski has been the first retail organisation in Spain to engage in the fight against obesity shortly after the launch of the national Government's action plan on nutrition and health (NAOS Strategy).

In May 2005 Eroski launched the national campaign "Preventing obesity is a healthy idea!" which will be brought forward in 2006. The main goal of the campaign is to raise awareness amongst the Spanish consumers about the benefits of a balanced diet and physical activity. By the end of the campaign, Eroski plans to have reached and informed 1 200 000 consumers.

Most information tools that have been used so far will be confirmed also for 2006 i.e. in-store info points, the consumer-magazine Idea Sana, and the web page http://www.ideasana.com. Eroski's educational programme 'Escuelas Idea Sana' will involve 125 informative sessions on nutrition, health and sport. Further to that, Eroski plans to publish five information brochures focussing on physical activity, food consumption and leisure time. Each brochure will be published in 300 000 copies.

Alongside its campaign on healthy lifestyles, Eroski, together with Hispacoop, the Spanish federation of consumer co-operatives, will launch a web-based initiative in order to prevent children obesity (see below).

Hispacoop - Spain

Hispacoop together with Eroski will launch an 'on-line school', i.e. a web page designed with the aim of preventing children obesity. Overall, the contents of this on-line programme should allow parents to make their children's diet balanced and to persuade them of the advantages of exercising regularly. The on-line school will be articulated in two main sections. One section will address parents and educators ('Teaching to eat well') and will provide them with e.g. advice on diet and health depending on age and with recipes to cook with children. One the contrary, the second one ('Learning to eat well') will target children and adolescents with contents and activities that may vary according to two groups of age i.e. 6-12 and 12-18. The 'on-line school' will be available on the website http://www.consumer.es. More than 1 200 000 visits per month are estimated whereas the expected actual users are 150 000 per year.

Hispacoop plans to organise a number of conferences in order to prevent obesity. Such conferences will take place in some major Spanish towns and involve a wide range of stakeholders who play a role in the obesity debate.

Finally, Consum, a Spanish Co-operative member of Hispacoop, has recently launched its own brand line. Already in 2006 Consum plans to introduce nutrition labelling on the packaging of all food items of its brand line. Workshops centred on the theme of healthy lifestyle, including nutrition and physical activity, will be organised in Catalonia and in the Valencia region targeting the general public and, in particular, schoolchildren.

SOK and Inex - Finland

SOK and Inex will continue the actions outlined in their baseline document. As far as new actions are concerned, it is worth mentioning that SOK has published a wall calendar for 2006 in 100 000 samples. The calendar, which contains seasonal healthy recipes, will be delivered home to consumer-members. Further to that, next year the healthy recipes that are contained on SOK consumer magazine 'Ruokalehti' (The Food Magazine) will start appearing also in the advertisements in local newspapers.

Together with the Finnish Heart Association, SOK is currently carrying-out an initiative called the 'Heart Tour'. A van touring the country stops in the parking areas of SOK outlets and gets consumers blood pressure and cholesterol levels measured, besides providing them with general advice on healthy lifestyles. In the first month, over 17 000 customers have paid a visit to the van. In the light of this successful initiative, other joint initiatives are being considered for 2006.

On the nutrition labelling side, in 2006 Inex plans to introduce around 100 new food items in its food line. All these items will bear comprehensive nutrition labelling in full compliance with Inex guidelines on nutrition.

uro Coop is the European Community of consumer cooperatives. Its Secretariat is based in Brussels. Its members are the national organisations of consumer cooperatives in 17 European countries. Created in 1957, Euro Coop today represents over 3,200 local and regional cooperatives, whose members amount to more than 20 million consumers across Europe.