Louise O'Reilly (Dublin Fingal, Sinn Fein)
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378. To ask the Minister for Health when the food reformulation working group will be established; when the membership will be determined; if public health organisations will be involved; when the draft terms of reference will be prepared for this technical group; when it will be convened; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [43889/17]

Louise O'Reilly (Dublin Fingal, Sinn Fein)
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379. To ask the Minister for Health the way the reformulation efforts will be monitored in view of the introduction of the sugar sweetened drinks tax in April 2018; the role the FSAI will have in this; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [43890/17]

Louise O'Reilly (Dublin Fingal, Sinn Fein)
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380. To ask the Minister for Health when a report on validation of the sugar and fat reduction will be published; the timeframe for same; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [43891/17]

Louise O'Reilly (Dublin Fingal, Sinn Fein)
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381. To ask the Minister for Health when data for 2013 onwards will be collected, verified and published in respect of reformulation information on reduction of sugar in still and carbonated drinks (details supplied); the way in which the FSAI is working with the food and drink industry on this currently; if this will be monitored officially aside from the ad hoc manner it is done currently in which an industry organisation (details supplied) meets with the FSAI periodically at the industry's request to seek its input into the industry's reformulation work; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [43892/17]

Catherine Byrne (Dublin South Central, Fine Gael)
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I propose to take Questions Nos. 378 to 381, inclusive, together.

The reformulation of foods, particularly those high in fat, sugar and salt is a priority area in the National Obesity Policy and Action Plan 2016-2025. Plans by the Department to establish an Obesity Policy Implementation Group for the National Policy and Action Plan are well advanced. The first meeting of this cross-sectoral group is expected to take place this month.

A number of working groups will be established within this overall national oversight structure - including a technical one on food reformulation, which will also explore approaches to food portion sizes. The establishment of this working group and its attributes (membership, Terms of Reference, date of first meeting, etc) shall be a function of the decision making process of the national Obesity Policy Implementation Group.

Ireland is actively involved in the EU Food Reformulation Project and is represented by my Department on the EU High Level Group on Nutrition and Physical Activity. The EU High Level Group is agreeing EU targets for reformulation of foods and beverages with Member States across Europe.

In relation to FSAI's work in this area, it continues to sample a range of foods testing for salt, independently of the food industry, and post the information on its website .

It has analysed declared sugar and fat levels on labels of yogurt and breakfast cereal and presented these findings at the summer meeting of the Irish Nutrition Society. A full report on this is due for publication in the coming weeks. Independent testing of foods for fat and sugar content has not yet started as it requires the use of external laboratories and will be looked at in 2018 depending on resources.

FSAI has had periodic meetings with the FDI regarding reformulation in 2017.

In October 2016, the Department published a Health Rationale on the introduction of a tax on sugar sweetened drinks. This document explored options for measuring and evaluating the impact of such a tax.

It specified that a high quality evaluation should seek to examine the impact of the tax on purchasing, consumption and associated health outcomes such as BMI; a review of sales data on all SSD classified products would inform how the tax would be shaped in future years; a review of ongoing population-based nutrition surveillance data, building on the Healthy Ireland survey, where additional data relating to SSD consumption and consumption of other food and beverage items would be included, along with other nutrition surveillance datasets; and a review and report on the levels and trends in the population would be important.

Furthermore, the report added that further research tracking public reaction and acceptability would be helpful. This approach will be considered over the coming months to develop an effective methodology to monitor and evaluate the impact of the SSD tax, including its impact on reformulation.