Speech on nutrition - Informal Meeting of the Ministers for Employment, Social Policy, Health and Consumer Affairs

Your Excellency, honourable ministers, ladies and gentlemen, I would like to convey my sincere thanks to the presidency for giving me the opportunity to address such a distinguished audience.

First and foremost, please allow me to congratulate you, honourable Minister of Health from Latvia, for putting the issues of diet and physical activity so high on the agenda of your presidency. Not only have you prioritized the issues but you have also underscored the importance of focusing on children, and I fully agree with you.

The High-level Conference on Nutrition in Schools that you organized this February demonstrated how committed you are to this important topic and the emphasis you place on prevention – in particular the prevention of childhood obesity. WHO stands ready to support EU [European Union] Member States in the implementation of the recommendations that emerged from that meeting.

Ladies and gentlemen, obesity and other diet-related NCDs [noncommunicable diseases] are one of the biggest public health challenges. All countries in the EU are affected, albeit to different extents. Lower socioeconomic groups are most affected, and we also observe a noticeable north–south gradient in childhood obesity.

Broadly speaking, prevalence of childhood obesity is increasing across the Region, in spite of some sporadic improvements in a few countries where a plateau has recently been observed. This is why I am extremely pleased to learn of an important new EU initiative in this area – namely, the EU Action Plan on Childhood Obesity.

I am delighted that my services at the WHO Regional Office for Europe have been collaborating with EU Member States and the European Commission services on both the recommendations from February's High-level Conference and this new initiative. These important steps are fully integrated with the European Food and Nutrition Action Plan and the future European Strategy on Physical Activity.

Dear ministers, I would like to take a brief moment to further highlight a few additional examples of successful collaboration with the EU in this area. The European Childhood Obesity Surveillance Initiative (COSI) is unique worldwide and produces vitally important measured and comparable trend data. Similarly, the joint monitoring initiative focusing on policy development and implementation provides extensive and comparable data.

Excellencies, we are increasingly eating industrialized, highly processed, nutritionally poor foods. To compound this, we are consuming fewer healthy options – namely, fruit and vegetables. May I remind us all that in all EU countries more than 50% of the burden of disease is accounted for by dietary and physical activity-related factors?

At the regional level we have been requested to support Member States in improving food and drink environments and to take a life-course approach to these issues. Our recent and ongoing work on surveillance and monitoring, nutrient profiling, trans fats, price policies and infant and young child nutrition shows how committed we are to fulfil the mandate you gave us. At the same time, we fully acknowledge the need to work closely with Member States to tailor these tools to national circumstances and contexts, paying due consideration to cultural and traditional aspects of the diet.

Excellencies, I would like to express our support for the presidency initiative to instigate discussions on the issues of trans fats, sugar and the safety and risk assessment of food additives. The potential of saving lives in the short term by taking action on trans fats is undoubtedly a low-hanging fruit.

The development of policies for eliminating trans fats from the European food supply is highlighted as a priority in the European Food and Nutrition Action Plan 2015–2020. Removing trans fats from the food supply is possibly one of the most straightforward public health interventions for reducing coronary heart disease and improving nutritional quality.

Establishing a legal limit for the content of trans fats in all foods is shown to be the most effective option for decreasing mean population intake of artificial trans fats and the only option available that reduces the risks associated with trans fats faced by all consumers. It can help to avoid a situation where pockets of the population continue to consume very high levels of trans fats – in particular the least affluent ones.

Such a policy is unique in its combination of efficacy, cost–effectiveness and low potential for negative impact. Several countries in the EU have already implemented bans successfully without facing technological barriers, resistance from stakeholder or market distortions.

We know a Europe without trans fats would be healthier, and I believe this is eminently achievable.

With regards to sugar, WHO has recently issued new guidelines on sugar intake for adults and children. This brings together the solid existing evidence. This and newly emerging evidence overwhelmingly points to the significant role that sugar consumption plays in increasing the risk of weight gain among children, particularly in the form of sugary soft drinks and confectionary.

These foods should only be exceptional components in a child's diet and consumed in moderation. Therefore, measures that can contribute to limiting the amount of free sugar in children's diets are important. We believe that reformulation and marketing restrictions in this context do have a role to play.

This is one of the reasons we recently launched a nutrient profile model for the purposes of restricting marketing of food to children, to be used, adjusted and adapted by Member States on a voluntary basis.

Because diets need to be not only healthier but also safe, I am also compelled by the point made by the presidency document on the cumulative effect of additives. My advisers on health research highlight this issue frequently and we are aware of emerging research that calls for further discussions.

I believe EFSA [the European Food Safety Authority] does wonderful work on this topic. We value the good collaboration between our two institutions; therefore, count on our willingness to collaborate on that as well.

Dear ministers, as I close, let me assure you that WHO stands ready to support further and to collaborate with you in this endeavour of promoting well-being and reducing the burden of diet-related NCDs in Europe.

Thank you.