Healthy food – how to help

consumers make healthy choices

Vilnius

2013 06 21

Agnė Zuokienė

people: •Follow correct diet and nutrition •Were physically active •Did not overuse alcohol and stopped smoking We could avoid: 80% of cardiovascular diseases 90% of 2nd type diabetes 30 % oncological diseases

IF

70-80% of health budget is spent

for treating non-communicable

diseases.

The most effective healthy living

program by the government:

• Significant increase in health insurance tax for those choosing unhealthy lifestyle;

• VAT and excise increase on unhealthy products;

• Restricted advertisements of unhealthy products.

Food and nutrition policy

The Ministry of

Health The Ministry of

Agriculture

Eating habits of children in Lithuania:

• Only half of the kids have a hot

meal for lunch; • Half of the children indicated fish

as the least favorite food; • Each third child drinks juice in

school; • Each tenth child eats salad; • More than half of students

sweeten their tea more than it is recommended;

• Half of the kids drink not enough water – less than one liter per day;

• Sweets are not used by only 1.2% of children;

• Only each 10th child does not eat pizzas and hot dogs.

Dietary supplements are used by 44% of primary school students;

Parent’s level of education is not a criteria for choosing healthy lifetyle. For example, fruits are more used in families, where parents have only secondary education.

RIMANTAS STUKAS, KRISTINA SAVICKAJA, ROMA BARTKEVIČIŪTĖ, VALERIJ DOBROVOLSKIJ „Sveikatos mokslai, 2011“

Unhealthy food: • Crisps • Fried food • Energy drinks • Broth concentrate • Smoked fish • Canned meat and fish • Confectionery with chocolate and cream • Mechanically separated meat and other products; food

made from genetically modified organisms (GMO) • Food with GMO additives. Food with these additives

(Colorants E102, E104, E110, E122–124, E127–129, E131–133, E142, E151, E154, E155, E180, preservatives E200, E202, E203, E210–213, sweeteners E950–952, E954–955, E 957, E959, E962, flavor and aroma enhancers E620–625)

Which criteria is the most important?

Sustenace? Freshness? Price?

On 1st of July 2012 a new catering system

was approved for schools

In 2009 the European Commision started fruit program for schools. In the very first year the initiative failed. When the aid was aimed at 200,000 kids, ir actually reached only 20,000. This is a very attractive model, when the European Commision covers 70% of costs. What were the limitations of the project? •Complicated data recording and accounting •Not attractive in a national level, it did not encourage schools to compete •Limited age range target group •Price set for puchasing fruits was too low. There was no supply at established price •In the first year range of healthy products was very small, only apples and juice

Grenlandija 15,6 Lietuva 26,0 Ukraina 27,0 Latvija 27,2

Suomija 27,6 Graikija 32,0

Rusijos Federacija 32,0 Prancūzija 33,2

Turkija 33,3 Estija 33,6

Slovakija 33,6 Švedija 35,8 Ispanija 35,9

Bulgarija 37,0 Nyderlandai 38,1

JAV 38,3 Islandija 38,4 Vengrija 38,5 Kroatija 39,1 Austrija 39,4 Lenkija 40,2

Vokietija 41,7 Airija 41,8 Malta 42,3

Liuksemburgas 43,5 Belgija 44,1

Kanada 44,2 Čekijos Respublika 44,8 Jungtinė Karalystė 45,0

Izraelis 45,4 Italija 45,5

Rumunija 46,3 Slovėnija 46,9

Makedonija 47,0 Portugalija 47,0 Norvegija 47,4

Danija 47,8 Šveicarija 48,1

14,4 Grenlandija 18,6 Latvija 18,6 Suomija 21,0 Lietuva 26,5 Estija 26,8 Islandija 26,8 Rusijos Federacija 27,0 Nyderlandai 27,9 Slovakija 28,6 Švedija 28,7 Lenkija 28,8 Austrija 29,3 Prancūzija 29,3 Graikija 30,3 Ukraina 30,3 Vokietija 30,5 Ispanija 31,5 Vengrija 31,8 Liuksemburgas 32,2 Airija 32,9 Čekijos Respublika 34,1 Slovėnija 34,8 Kanada 35,0 Danija 35,1 Bulgarija 35,3 Kroatija 36,4 Norvegija 36,4 Belgija 36,5 Malta 36,8 Jungtinė Karalystė 36,8 Šveicarija 37,2 Rumunija 37,5 Makedonija 40,0 Izraelis 41,3 Portugalija 41,3 JAV 41,4 Italija 43,7 Turkija

30

12

5

3

6

4

7

18192021

22232425262728

11121314151617

89

10

Mergaitės Berniukai

0 0 3010

Proc.Proc.

31

3332

3435

50

29

30

10 50

36

3738

2040 4020

The most effective healthy living

program by the government:

• Significant increase in health insurance tax for those choosing unhealthy lifestyle;

• VAT and excise increase on unhealthy products;

• Restricted advertisements of unhealthy products.

VAT on food Ireland, United Kingdom, Malta 0 %

Italy, Spain, Belgium, Nyderland, Portugal 4-6 %

BUT in Ireland VAT on bakery products – 13.5%, on sweets, frozen products – 21%. In Italy 10 % VAT on sausages and sugar.....

In Spain VAT on spices with artificial additives is twice higher than on healthy products.

Main Flavor enhancer import to Lithuania, kg

‘The Highest Quality‘ – Lithuanian quality standart with long

history. The main problem with it is that it is outdated, therefore

does not capture latter-day dangers. Many consumers are

mislead, because standards are too low. The main criteria is that

there is no mechanically separated meat. Attempts to change the

standards have not been successful so far.

Lithuania has to take different

direction and focus on reducing

tax on healthy products rather

than increasing tax on unhealthy

products.

According to information from

statistics department, people in

Lithuania spent 34% of their income on

food products.

Today in Lithuania VAT on all food is 21%.

In 2008 the Parliament decreased VAT on

fruits, vegetables, berries to 5%. This

decision was called of before coming into

effect. Later there were a few discussions in

Parliamentary committees to decrease VAT

to 9%, unfortunately, in final voting stage

these amendments were not approved.

Today there are about 2000 ecological

farms in Lithuania. Obviously,

production from these companies is

more expensive, therefore VAT on

ecological products should be lower.

Unfortunately, all of the attempts to

decrease VAT were unsuccessful.

• Outstanding quality products.

• This is ambitious and professional description. In order to receive certificate producers have to meet high standards. Still, in 5 year period only 10 producers became certificated and can offer about 30 different products. In this list there is no single one dairy or meat producer. Very unfortunate, that reduced VAT was not approved for this group of products.

• For those wishing to become certified producers, costs are covered from national budget. Unfortunately, VAT was not reduced on products of outstanding quality, which would have enabled to show that government has high requirements for producers and their products.

The last example shows that good idea is not

enought, there has to be a constructive plan,

how to achieve the goals. If the Ministry of

Agriculture – the author of the ‘Outstanding

quality products’ mark would have been more

focused, we could have much more products

with ‘Quality’ mark. Meanwhile, The Ministry

of Health has created a new mark following

Scandinavian key hole principle.

Since 2011 it is forbidden to give away energy

drinks to minors and advertisement of energy

drinks has been restrained.

Since 2010, when the EU regulations took effect all food products that have E102,E104,E110,E122,E124,E129, have to be labeled saying:

’Can have an adverse effect on activity and attention in children’.

Results are evident, these additives have been removed from majority of the products.

It is difficult for countries to implement efficient food policies individually. But we have great ideas and professional specialists, therefore we will be very successful in following regulations from the EU.