Towards a Sustainable Food chain: Health and consumers aspects

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Towards a Sustainable Food chain Health and
consumers aspects

• Food SCP Round table - Plenary meeting
• Despina Spanou, Principal Adviser DG SANCO
• 21 November 2012 Brussels

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Consumer and Health perspective on EU Food supply
chain

• Basic principles of the Food policy and current
  example of SANCO policies

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Food policy principles

• I. Access
• Economic means and rights to use
• II. Available
• Quality and safety to use
• III. Adequate
• Environmental and health impact of use
• IV. Acceptable
• Consumer willingness to use

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I.1 Access economic means or right to use food

• EU consumers spend on average less than 16 per
  cent of their monthly income on food, however,
  with large variations between member states.
• Estimates suggest that over 40 million people in
  Europe cannot afford an adequate diet. In 2010,
  23 of the EU population were at risk of poverty
  or social exclusion.

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Final consumption expenditure of households for
food and non-alcoholic beverages, 2009
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EU agriculture and consumer price developments in
the dairy market(Jan 2000 Sept 2012, Jan 2000
100)
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I.2 Availability safe and secure food supplies

• Ensuring sufficient safe and healthy food through
  secure supplies was one of the original European
  goals in the area of agriculture and food (CAP).
• Focus on more resilient production systems
  incorporating the principle of prevention
  biosecurity in animal husbandry integrated crop
  management for plant production.

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I.2 Availability safe and secure food supplies

• Further threats to food supplies are posed by
  population growth, climate change and the
  scarcity of resources.
• In the past 40 years, temperatures have risen by
  nearly 2 degrees in Europe's South-West region.
  It is estimated that a 2 degree temperature
  increase would lead to a potential 20 to 30
  decrease in water availability in the European
  Union's vulnerable regions.

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EX Prevention in plant health

• Cost of outbreak
• Losses from harmful organisms have been estimated
  to be attributable for 30 to new pests and
  diseases. On a global scale, losses would be
  5080 in the absence of control measures
• estimate annual economic losses for the EU of
  approximately 10 billion caused by already
  introduced alien insects
• Cost of prevention
• EU budget available to the plant health regime
  has increased from 1 to 12 million (for 2011)

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I.3 Adequacy healthy and environmentally sound
food

• Food consumption patterns are constantly
  evolving, reflecting changing lifestyles and
  consumer choices. Diets have become more diverse
  and substantial over recent decades.
• Partial shift in recent years away towards diets
  richer in energy and fat, triggering a rise in
  over-weight and obesity.

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I.3 Adequacy healthy and environmentally sound
food

• Malnutrition arises in two forms, with both
  undernourished and overweight individuals lacking
  food of high nutritional quality, essential for
  good health.
• This dual burden of malnutrition is evidenced by
  one billion of the world's population suffers
  from undernourishment, more than 1.4 billion
  adults overweight, of which half a billion are
  obese.

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EX EU Strategy on Nutrition
EU Strategy on Nutrition, Overweight and
Obesity-related health issues
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EX Food waste
Annual food waste in EU27 is estimated to 179 kg
per capita for manufacturing, retail, catering
and households sectors combined1.
1. Source Preparatory Study on Food Waste across
EU 27 BIO IS/DG ENV 2010
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I.4 Acceptability willingness to eat healthy
food

• Requires sufficient knowledge, information and
  skills to make healthy choices.
• Provided for by consumer education and
  information through effective labelling
• Production systems that ensure diversity, quality
  and cultural acceptance, and which preserve local
  traditions and diets.

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I.4 Regulation on Food Information to Consumers

• Nutrition labelling becomes mandatory, in order
  to
• encourage healthier dietary choices by consumers
• encourage the food industry to reformulate
  products

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EX Food information regulation

• Regulation on food information to consumers was
  agreed November 2011 by EU institutions.
• The provision of information on allergens is of
  particular importance to consumer health. 70 of
  anaphylactic events occur in restaurants or other
  eating places outside of the home.
• Member States may adopt rules tailor made to the
  specificities of the sector concerned.

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EX FOOD LABELLING
A behavioural science study on the presentation
and provision of food information to consumers
will be launched end 2012

• Objectives of the study
• understand how consumers use information for
  their choices and to identify optimal
  presentation of the information
• provide robust evidence to inform the
  implementation of the new Regulation on food
  information to consumers

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SANCO mission is to

• ensure that all food placed on the market is
  safe
• empower the consumer to make informed choices
• foster the competitiveness of the Food sector

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• THANK YOU FOR YOUR ATTENTION!

http//ec.europa.eu/food/food/index_en.htm