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Matthew Vella
Health Minister Louis Deguara said Malta is considering undertaking recommendations by the EU’s Directorate General for Health and Consumer Protection (DG Sanco) following two roundtable meetings to tackle the obesity epidemic.
Deguara was answering a question in Parliament made by Labour MP Leo Brincat, who asked the Health Minister whether the government would consider introducing legislation to curb junk food advertising. Maltese TV programmes, especially children’s programmes, enjoy substantial financial support from local branches of fast-food and soft drinks multinationals.
Italy and Malta have the highest number of overweight children in the developed world, followed by Scotland, where one in five 12-year-olds are clinically obese. According to a WHO behaviour survey carried out among children by the Health Promotion Department in 2002, Maltese 13-year-olds are amongst the most obese in the world.
This compares with France and Sweden, where only 18 per cent are overweight and Germany, where the figure is 15 per cent. In the Netherlands 13 pr cent of children are overweight and in Slovakia the figure is 10 per cent.
The Obesity Roundtable is considering examining how limits on advertising of snacks, confectionery and sugar-sweetened soft drinks to children, and the marketing of such products in schools, could operate.
The roundtable also is also discussing the role of nutrition labelling as a tool for influencing food choices. There is broad agreement on the need for clear and meaningful information on food labels for consumers, through the use of ‘signposting’, ‘traffic lights’, and symbols such as the ‘key hole’ and the ‘healthy heart’. Other recommendations include campaigns for education on healthy eating for children.
DG Sanco’s latest roundtable meeting has focused on sharing best practice on food labelling, marketing and product development.
matthew@newsworksltd.com
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