Hildegarde Naughton (Galway West, Fine Gael)
Link to this: Individually | In context | Oireachtas source

I would like to thank the Deputy for raising a number of important issues, many of which are relevant to addressing the risk factors associated with overweight and obesity and the many different diseases that can be caused or exacerbated by overweight and obesity, including cardiovascular disease, diabetes and many cancers.

“A Healthy Weight for Ireland”, our national Obesity Policy and Action Plan (OPAP) recognises that not only are individual-focused measures needed to address overweight and obesity which is a key risk factor for CVD, but that a wide range of policies, many structural, are needed to address the obesogenic environment that we live in.

The Obesity Policy and Action Plan (OPAP) was launched in September 2016 as part of the Healthy Ireland Framework and covers a 10-year period up to 2025. It aims to reverse obesity trends, prevent health complications and reduce the overall burden for individuals, families, the health system, and the wider society and economy.?

Significant work has been achieved to date in implementing the OPAP. The FSAI, Safefood and in particular, the HSE have worked with the Department in developing and delivering initiatives to address overweight and obesity from prevention measures right through to clinical treatment, at all life stages. The Department has also supported other Government Departments in the development of policies to address overweight and obesity, including guidelines for school meals and early learning centres.

I would like to address the particular initiatives raised by the Deputy.

In 2021, the Department of Health published A Roadmap for Food Product Reformulation in Ireland. The Food Reformulation Task Force, a strategic partnership between the Food Safety Authority of Ireland (FSAI) and Healthy Ireland, was formed to implement the Roadmap.

One of the aims of the Roadmap is to reduce the salt content of 25 food categories identified as being in high priority need of salt reformulation. These include both bread and processed meats. Food retailers, manufacturers, ingredient suppliers and food service outlets are requested to reduce salt in the 25 priority food categories by 10%. This will build on the work of the Salt and Health programme led by the FSAI between 2003 - 2014. To drive reformulation in these priority food categories the Food Reformulation Task Force is engaging with food manufacturers, food retailers, ingredient suppliers and food service outlets with regards to the reduction of nutrients of public health concern, including salt in the Irish food supply.

The Food Reformulation Task Force will continue to drive food reformulation to achieve the ambitions not only for salt reduction set out in the Roadmap, but also for sugar and saturated fat content, and will publish annual progress reports outlining progress made. Food reformulation is currently done on a voluntary basis in Ireland, with the engagement, encouragement and support of the Task Force. The outcome of the work of the Task Force, which runs to 2025, and consideration of best practices across Europe will help to inform future policy direction with regard to food reformulation in Ireland.

With regard to food labelling, as part of the Farm-to-Fork Strategy published in 2020, the European Commission announced the revision of EU rules on the information provided to consumers. The aim of revising Regulation (EU) 1169/2011, known as the Food Information to Consumers (FIC) Regulation, is to ensure better labelling information, to help consumers make healthier and more sustainable food choices, and to tackle food waste. The Department of Health has legislative responsibility for the FIC Regulation and is coordinating the Irish cross-government approach. The Commission had committed to releasing a legislative proposal, including an impact assessment in Q4, 2022 but this has been delayed. The Commission has yet to indicate when the labelling aspect of the FIC revision will be progressed and has yet to confirm a date on when the impact assessment is likely to be published. Once these are progressed, they will then be considered by the Department of Health-led Inter-Departmental Group, with a view to achieving an agreed Ireland position for submission to the Commission for negotiation by the Member States.

Public awareness and engagement campaigns are an important part of the health promotion and prevention actions under OPAP. The Healthy Ireland social media platforms are used to convey healthy eating messages and to disseminate healthy eating guidelines. The HSE and safefood also run awareness campaigns and health promotion initiatives. A number of targeted campaigns have been run under the guise of OPAP.

START is a public health campaign from safefood, the Departments of Health in Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland, Healthy Ireland, the Health Service Executive and the Public Health Agency. The START campaign aimed to support families to take small steps to eating healthier food and becoming more active. A successor to the SafefoodStart campaign is currently under development.

Under the guidance of the Obesity Policy Implementation Oversight Group, a targeted social media campaign was developed by Healthy Ireland in partnership with stakeholders in 2022 called the Healthy Weight campaign. Based on analysis of trends in overweight and obesity, the campaign targets men and women aged 24 to 34 years, with a focus on lower socio-economic groups. Research with Young Adults led to the development of a creative concept based around 4 pillars - healthy habits that help individuals maintain a healthy weight: Eat Well, Be Active, Sleep and Stress. The initial burst of this campaign ran in Sep-Nov 2022. The campaign is currently in it’s second implementation phase across social media and radio channels, and once again focuses on the 4 pillars identified in initial research to help individuals aged 24 to 34 maintain a healthy weight.

The Department of Health has also been actively engaging in the Best ReMaP project which has just concluded its work. Best-ReMaP is a Europe-wide Joint Action that seeks to contribute to an improved quality of food supplied to citizens of Europe by facilitating the exchange and testing of good practices concerning food reformulation, marketing of food and beverages to children and the procurement of food by public bodies for educational institutions, social care facilities, etc. The outcomes from BestReMaP will assist the Department and other Government bodies to identify best practices for driving structural changes that are needed to progress OPAP and reduce the impact of the wider environment on overweight and obesity levels in Ireland.