Plenary Meeting of the Observatory of Nutrition and of the Study of Obesity
Post: Spanish Agency for Consumer Affairs, Food Safety and Nutrition
Date: 29 mayo 2017
Section: Nutrición
The annual plenary meeting of the Observatory of Nutrition and of the Study of Obesity took place on 26 May, at the head office of the Spanish Agency for Consumer Affairs, Food Safety and Nutrition (AECOSAN), and was attended by the President of the Observatory, Dr Valentín Fuster, the Executive Director of the AECOSAN and Vice-president of the Observatory, Dr Teresa Robledo de Dios, the NAOS Strategy Coordinator, Mª Ángeles Dal Re Saavedra, the Secretary of the Observatory, Dr Napoleón Pérez Farinós, the Deputy-director General for Food Safety Promotion, Mr Victorio Teruel, the members and voting members of the Observatory, and other technical experts from the NAOS Strategy and the Deputy-directorate General of Food safety promotion of the AECOSAN.
The first point on the agenda was the review of the minimum Set of Indicators for the Assessment of the NAOS Strategy 2011-2017, for the improvement, refinement and adaptation of the same as these form one of the bases of the Observatory. The Working Group maintained by the NAOS Strategy with the Autonomous Community Boards of Health is currently working on the review.
Next, the proposals for the National Collaboration Plan for the Improvement of the Composition of Food and Beverages 2017-2020 were explained. These are being carried out in cooperation with representatives from the food and drink and retail distribution industries, and from catering firms, among others, to promote the production of more food and drinks with lower levels of sugar, salt and saturated fats so that healthy options are more easily accessible to consumers. For this, the AECOSAN has developed a study of the sugar content in food in Spain 2016, in which laboratory tests of the total sugar content in each product have been carried out. The nutritional information provided in the labelling for each product has also been collected, and other prior studies conducted by the AECOSAN on salt and fats have been considered. A number of different numerical objectives have been proposed: percentage reduction of salt, saturated fats, sugars, in addition to the volume of improved products in the portfolio, businesses involved, and other measures, in order to create the Plan for the voluntary introduction of the reductions from 2017 to 2020.
In the third point on the agenda, the Study on the Coherence between the Nutrient Content of the Food Products and the Information included in the nutritional labelling was presented. This assessment was carried out using information obtained in the above study of sugar content, comparing the quantity of sugar measured by the laboratory with that declared in the labelling. The number of products complying with the tolerance criteria has also been quantified using the EC guidance document for the establishment of tolerance values for the nutritional values declared on the label. This has permitted confirmation that the nutritional labelling of food products in Spain offers accurate and true information about the nutrient content.
Another subject discussed at the meeting, as the fourth point on the agenda, was the ALADINO Study 2015. The main results and new data operations were presented, concluding that although the prevalence of overweight and obesity on children aged from 6 to 9 years old in Spain is very high, looking at the data from the ALADINO Study in 2011 and the latest figures for 2015, there has been a statistically significant reduction in the prevalence of overweight and obesity combined, (referred to as excess weight) from 44.5 % to 41.3 % between 2011 and 2015. This decrease is observed in boys (from 47.6 % to 42.8 %) and in girls (from 41.2 % to 39.7 %). Consequently, the time trend of excess weight in boys and girls aged from 6 to 9 years old in Spain is currently decreasing. This confirms the reversal of the tendency of childhood overweight and obesity in Spain. However, the situation should continue to be monitored.
In addition, the factors linked to eating habits and physical activity which are significant determining factors in childhood excess weight continue to include the level of education and the weighted status of parents, hours of sleep, breakfast habits and the availability of passive leisure resources. This helps to continue working so that this tendency to decrease continues and the fall in the prevalences is faster.
Lastly, the Deputy-directorate General for Food Safety Promotion presented the most relevant figures obtained after the assessment of the micro-nutrient intake in the infant and teenager population in Spain through the ENALIA Study. This is a study conducted at national level using recent and representative data on the nutritional intakes in the infant and teenager population, collated in the framework of a European project, EU Menu, which allows consumer data to be compared at international level. Vitamin D deficiencies are observed at all ages and both genders, calcium and vitamin E and folate deficiencies are particularly found in children over the age of 9 and magnesium deficiencies in people over the age of 14. In addition, the sodium intake is high in all age groups, with more than 40% of school children and adolescents with intakes above the maximum tolerable intake. Recently, all this information has been published in the Journal Nutrients.