Mary L'Abbé presents at MCCHE Consumer Behaviour Webinar and Discussion Series
MCCHE Consumer Behaviour Webinar and Discussion Series
Defining “healthy” foods – the evolution of nutrient profiling in food policy
Thursday, January 21st, 2016 | 12:00-1:15pm
Governments and health organizations need to define “healthy” foods for regulatory, policy or public health programs; companies also want to market “healthy” foods to consumers, or to qualify for industry symbol or self-regulatory programs. According to the World Health Organization, Nutrient profiling (NP) is the “science of classifying or ranking foods according to their nutritional composition for reasons related to preventing disease and promoting health”. NP has many applications such as: front of pack food labelling, restricting marketing of unhealthy foods to children, school foods, or the “junk food” tax recently introduced in Mexico. Additionally, national Food Guides, are being developed based on “healthy” food intake patterns associated with decreased risk for obesity and chronic disease and less on preventing nutrient deficiencies. This webinar will overview the components of NP systems, and provide examples of how we are using NP to monitor the nutritional quality of the Canadian food supply and the eating patterns of Canadians.
Contact cameron.mcrae2 [at] mcgill.ca (subject: MCCHE%20Consumer%20Behaviour%20Webinar%20and%20Discussion%20Series) (Cameron McRae) for more information.
