Louise O'Reilly (Dublin Fingal, Sinn Fein)
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772. To ask the Minister for Health further to Parliamentary Question No. 419 of 11 July 2017, if data publicly exist in regard to sugar, fat and salt reformulation by the food and beverage industry here in the past ten years; if the body which is monitoring the reformulation makes this available; if not, the reason therefore; the body which has monitored and verified the reduction in sugar in still and carbonated soft drinks since 2000; the exact detail of same; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [35323/17]

Louise O'Reilly (Dublin Fingal, Sinn Fein)
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773. To ask the Minister for Health further to Questions Nos. 418 to 421 of 11 July 2017, if the food industry’s annual presentation of its reformulation programme and updates pertaining to his Department’s special action group on obesity are made available to the public; the way the food industry has liaised with the Food Safety Authority of Ireland for validation of its work; if this validation is made public; if not, the reason therefor; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [35324/17]

Louise O'Reilly (Dublin Fingal, Sinn Fein)
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774. To ask the Minister for Health further to Questions Nos. 418 to 421 of 11 July 2017, if and the way in which the assessment of a report (details supplied) which noted that it contained some unsubstantiated assumptions was dealt with; and if these assumptions were made public [35325/17]

Catherine Byrne (Dublin South Central, Fine Gael)
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I propose to take Questions Nos. 772 to 774, inclusive, together as they all relate to the FDI/Creme Global Reformulation Project Report.

The food industry body, Food Drink Ireland (FDI) have been providing verbal updates to the Special Action Group on Obesity (SAGO) on their reformulation work regularly over the years. In November 2015, they presented the draft FDI/Creme Global Reformulation Project results to the Special Action Group on Obesity in November 2015. Representatives on SAGO agreed that a validation process was required and suggested that FDI refer the Report to the Food Safety Authority of Ireland (FSAI) for this purpose. The FDI followed this advice and the FDI/Creme Global Reformulation Project Report was published in 2016 and is available on the FDI website.

In relation to the food industry/ FSAI liaison, Food Drink Ireland (FDI) meet with FSAI periodically at the industry's request to seek their input into the industry's reformulation work and they also consulted the FSAI on the modelling used to predict the health impact of these reductions in fat, sugar and salt in foods and drinks.

The FSAI have been validating food industry salt reduction work for many years by sampling foods from the market and having them analysed in the HSE Public Analysts Laboratory in Galway. These data are published annually and are available on the FSAI web site. The FSAI has only recently started to look at validation of the FDI sugar and fat reduction work and have, in the first instance, been developing baseline data on yogurts and breakfast cereals based on labelled data. A report on this work is expected to be published later this year.

Reformulation information on reduction of sugar in still and carbonated drinks comes from the food industry report: Estimating the impact of reformulation and the introduction of low and no cal beverage products by FDI members on the Irish population, 2016 – a supplementary report published in line with the FDI/Creme Global Reformulation Project Report. The FDI/Creme Global Report and this supplementary Report covers the period from 2005-2012. Currently data are being collected and verified for 2013 onwards.