Policy healthy food environment can be much better

The Dutch national government is missing opportunities when it comes to a healthy food environment: an environment that makes it easy for people to make healthy food choices. This is evident from research conducted by Utrecht University and Wageningen University & Research. They are therefore calling on the government to take action. 

A low or no VAT on fruit and vegetables, a sugar tax or banning fast food restaurants near schools. These are just some of the measures that a country can use to try to create a healthy food environment. Policies of the national government therefore play a major role in the design of the food environment. This makes it an important instrument in the fight against obesity, for example. And that is sorely needed, since the number of obese people has risen sharply in recent decades. Where in 1990 only 6 percent of the Dutch were obese, in 2018 this percentage was almost 15 percent according to figures from the CBS. 

Assessment by independent experts

Sanne Djojosoeparto and Dr. Carlijn Kamphuis (Utrecht University) and Dr. Maartje Poelman (Wageningen University and Research) looked at the national government policy regarding the food environment. They did so in collaboration with European partners within the JPI Policy Evaluation Network (https://www.jpi-pen.eu/.) The researchers had 28 independent Dutch experts from universities, municipalities, health and social organizations assess 22 points that refer to the ideal direction of government policy for creating a healthy food environment, divided into six categories: food composition, labeling, supply, prices, marketing and retail. In addition, the experts looked at 24 other points referring to policy support domains divided into the categories of leadership, governance, monitoring, financing, platforms for interaction, and integrated health policy. To do this, the researchers used the Healthy Food Environment Policy Index (Food-EPI), an internationally standardized food policy assessment method. 

Few policies for a healthy food environment

For 41% of the 22 points listed, no or very few policies were found to have been made, and 50% of the policies were rated as weak. For example, little is done to make healthy foods cheaper or to limit advertisements for unhealthy foods aimed at children. There is also no legislation to ban, for example, fast food restaurants near schools. Only policies to provide training and support within public and private sectors for the provision of healthy foods reached the level of "moderate" in the expert assessment.

In terms of the 24 points for policy support for healthy food policy, the scores are higher and more is happening in the Netherlands. 42% of the policy support indicators scored acceptable. According to the experts, the Netherlands scored acceptable on, for example, funding of research into nutrition-related diseases and the existence of dietary guidelines. The fact that the Netherlands has a national institute for health promotion (Voedingscentrum, RIVM) even ensured a high score. But beyond that, the study showed that the government does too little to limit commercial influences on policy and the experts concluded that too few priorities are set to reduce socio-economic health differences between groups of people.

Improve current policy

Utrecht researcher Sanne Djojosoeparto says: "We would like to offer this research report to the government so that they can improve the current policy. The introduction of a sugar tax, for example, has been proven effective and relatively easy to implement as various countries, including the United Kingdom, have already shown. Yet the Dutch government keeps putting this off."

Click here for the report 'The Healthy Food Environment Policy Index (Food-EPI): The Netherlands'