Abstract:Strong leadership, policy entrepreneurship and a coherent alliance between public health and consumer groups enabled the development of a FoPL system in Australia and could contribute to advancing FoPL standards at the international level.
“…These include prioritising both a National Nutrition Policy and the development of a health advocacy tool based largely on 10 sequential steps for planning or evaluating public health advocacy 4 (see Figure ). The lessons we draw are consistent with the findings of Kumar et al 5 who conclude:…”
supporting
confidence: 90%
“… Strong leadership, policy entrepreneurship and a coherent alliance between public health and consumer groups enabled the development of a FoPL system in Australia and could contribute to advancing FoPL standards at the international level 5 …”
Objectives: To draw advocacy lessons from actions undertaken by public health groups to assist the development of Australia and New Zealand's Health Star Rating (HSR) front‐of‐pack nutrition labelling system.
Methods: The advocacy approaches undertaken by the Public Health Association of Australia leading up to the time of the adoption of the HSR is examined using a 10 step advocacy framework. Key roles in advocacy planning and implementation are described, along with coordinating efforts by health and consumer groups during the HSR development processes.
Results: HSR aims to support consumers to make informed choices to protect from diet‐related diseases, including obesity. The HSR launched despite a number of major obstacles, owing to a strategic, coordinated advocacy effort undertaken by a guiding coalition.
Conclusions: Actions to improve nutrition are often highly contested, particularly if the desired outcome competes with commercial interests. However, by deploying a structured approach to public health advocacy it is possible to influence government despite opposition from commercial interests.
Implications for public health: A shared vision and a coordinated effort by public health professionals enabled advocates to overcome undue commercial influence.
“…These include prioritising both a National Nutrition Policy and the development of a health advocacy tool based largely on 10 sequential steps for planning or evaluating public health advocacy 4 (see Figure ). The lessons we draw are consistent with the findings of Kumar et al 5 who conclude:…”
supporting
confidence: 90%
“… Strong leadership, policy entrepreneurship and a coherent alliance between public health and consumer groups enabled the development of a FoPL system in Australia and could contribute to advancing FoPL standards at the international level 5 …”
Objectives: To draw advocacy lessons from actions undertaken by public health groups to assist the development of Australia and New Zealand's Health Star Rating (HSR) front‐of‐pack nutrition labelling system.
Methods: The advocacy approaches undertaken by the Public Health Association of Australia leading up to the time of the adoption of the HSR is examined using a 10 step advocacy framework. Key roles in advocacy planning and implementation are described, along with coordinating efforts by health and consumer groups during the HSR development processes.
Results: HSR aims to support consumers to make informed choices to protect from diet‐related diseases, including obesity. The HSR launched despite a number of major obstacles, owing to a strategic, coordinated advocacy effort undertaken by a guiding coalition.
Conclusions: Actions to improve nutrition are often highly contested, particularly if the desired outcome competes with commercial interests. However, by deploying a structured approach to public health advocacy it is possible to influence government despite opposition from commercial interests.
Implications for public health: A shared vision and a coordinated effort by public health professionals enabled advocates to overcome undue commercial influence.
“…The question is-why was nutrition labelling only limited to the Big 4 declarations? This may reflect local constraints in Malaysia but could also be attributed to Codex guidelines setting minimum requirements to enable less-developed nations achieve primary food safety as part of provisions to facilitate trade [68]. However, the limited nutrient declarations may also reflect constraints from political alliances and the presence of the food industry front group represented by ILSI during Codex meetings, as has been reported previously [68].…”
Mandatory nutrition labelling, introduced in Malaysia in 2003, received a “medium implementation” rating from public health experts when previously benchmarked against international best practices by our group. The rating prompted this qualitative case study to explore barriers and facilitators during the policy process. Methods incorporated semi-structured interviews supplemented with cited documents and historical mapping of local and international directions up to 2017. Case participants held senior positions in the Federal government (n = 6), food industry (n = 3) and civil society representations (n = 3). Historical mapping revealed that international directions stimulated policy processes in Malaysia but policy inertia caused implementation gaps. Barriers hindering policy processes included lack of resources, governance complexity, lack of monitoring, technical challenges, policy characteristics linked to costing, lack of sustained efforts in policy advocacy, implementer characteristics and/or industry resistance, including corporate political activities (e.g., lobbying, policy substitution). Facilitators to the policy processes were resource maximization, leadership, stakeholder partnerships or support, policy windows and industry engagement or support. Progressing policy implementation required stronger leadership, resources, inter-ministerial coordination, advocacy partnerships and an accountability monitoring system. This study provides insights for national and global policy entrepreneurs when formulating strategies towards fostering healthy food environments.
“…Resistance observed in the food sector in Iran to Nutrition Traffic Light labelling as opposed to nutrition fact has also been reported in Australia, where the industry was against Traffic Light Labelling and lobbied through the Australian Food and Grocery Council However, the two countries differed with regard to the role of NGOs, as in Iran no NGO has been active to advocate for healthy industrial food products, while in Australia, different stakeholders and NGOs acted in the implementation of the “Health star rating” food labelling program . The Food Upfront campaign that attempted to ask the UK government and food industry to commit to introduce mandatory food labeling and make nutritional labeling clear or the Food watch European advocacy group which focused on protecting nutritional consumer rights are two examples of the role of NGOs in this regard which their absent could be felt in Iran.…”
Background: Nutrition labelling is a strategy to promote healthy eating and combat non-communicable diseases (NCDs). The present study aimed to provide an analysis of the nutrition labelling policy and its opportunities to improve in Iran.Methods: Data were collected by 1) reviewing relevant documents and 2) semi-structured interviews with stakeholders through purposive and snowball sampling, continued until data saturation was achieved. A deductive content analysis was used by applying the policy triangulation framework and the Kingdon multiple stream theory. MAXQDA software was used to manage data analysis.Results: Iran, is the first country in the Eastern Mediterranean region which has accomplished to implement nutrition traffic light labelling. The main contextual factors that affected nutrition labelling policy to become a national included health, political commitment, and international factors. Poor involvement of media for public awareness of nutrition traffic labeling, the inconsistency of nutrition traffic light color ranking using food standard guidelines, lack of consistency between nutrition traffic light colors and the healthy/unhealthy nature of some food products and the absence of a comprehensive evaluation plan were among the policy challenges identified.Conclusions: Strengthening the governance for a healthy food environment is recommended to improve the program.Also, establishing national portion sizes for food labelling,
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