Por primera vez se reúnen en un mismo documento las soluciones de política alimentaria más innovadoras de la región nórdica. Este Menú de Soluciones abarca nutrición, cultura e identidad alimentarias, comida y alimentación públicas, desperdicio de alimentos y dietas sostenibles. Incluye 24 ejemplos de políticas locales, nacionales y regionales diseñadas para suscitar nuevas conversaciones e inspirar nuevas políticas en otras partes del mundo. Cada una de las soluciones supone un paso tangible para abordar un problema específico; en su conjunto, representan un enfoque nuevo e integral a la política alimentaria. También dan testimonio de cómo las políticas blandas pueden traducirse en soluciones y desempeñar un importante papel en la consecución de objetivos ambiciosos a nivel nacional e internacional.
The main purpose of this workshop held in Uppsala, Sweden 22-23 September 2016 was to initiate Nordic collaboration on risk-benefit assessment of foods.
The importance of assessing both risks and benefits with foods to improve public health through appropriate dietary habits was emphasized. Risk-benefit assessments are resource demanding, and the methodological challenges extensive. Workshop participants decided to jointly develop this area further within the Nordic region and a Nordic risk-benefit group was formed.
This report summarizes the presentations from invited speakers (Hans Verhagen, EFSA, Géraldine Boué, ONIRIS-INRA, France and Maarten Nauta, Denmark Technical University), the reports of ongoing risk-benefit activities in the Nordic countries and the discussions on topics and modes of future collaboration.
Documentation of compliance with the legislation is a corner stone in the control of food contact materials (FCM). In-house control is an important pre-requisite to limit contamination from FCM and shall be based on the declaration of compliance and supporting documentation at the responsible business operators in the supply chain. The goal of this project was to develop a Nordic checklist on documentation of compliance for FCM. The Nordic checklist contains several templates. The different templates provide check points on the minimum requirements for a declaration of compliance for all types of materials. The templates are meant to be used by industry and trade as guidance for drafting a declaration of compliance. Furthermore, the check lists are also meant to be tools for the public food and FCM inspection.
For the first time, the most innovative food policy solutions in the Nordic Region have been brought together in a single document. The Solutions Menu includes 24 policies that aim to change food consumption and intends to inspire new and robust policy responses to the societal and environmental challenges caused by our current food systems.
The Solutions Menu is produced by the Nordic Food Policy Lab, one of six flagship projects under the Nordic prime ministers’ Nordic Solutions to Global Challenges initiative.
This report is based on the seminar “Human biomonitoring (HBM) as a tool in policy making towards consumer safety” directed towards professionals involved in HBM programs, legislators and other policy-makers, risk assessors as well as researchers from universities and other higher educational institutions. It was organized by the Swedish National Food Agency in collaboration with the Norwegian Food Safety Authority, the Norwegian Institute of Public Health, the University of Iceland, and Karolinska Institute, Sweden. Experts from Europe, USA, and Canada within the field of HBM participated. It was agreed that HBM provides a powerful tool in policy making towards consumer safety. It was also concluded that there is interest to develop the Nordic collaborative efforts within the area of HBM and that there would, unquestionably, be benefits from this in terms of harmonization.
Denmark, Finland, Faroe Islands, Iceland, Norway and Sweden have in 2013–2015 conducted a Nordic project on food contact materials. Food contact materials are used in all stages of food production and can be a general source of contamination. The food safety authorities in most of the Nordic countries have had a limited focus on the FCM area with the exception of Denmark and Finland. The aim of the project was therefore to control establishments producing, importing or using plastic food contact materials as well as to increase the knowledge of the inspectors performing these controls. The focus of the inspections was to control the declaration of compliance (DoC) for plastic food contact materials. The requirement for a Doc is mandatory in order to ensure that the FCM complies with the legislation. In addition some products were analyzed for phthalates.
Human biomonitoring (HBM) can be defined as the systematic standardized measurement of a concentration of a substance or its metabolites in human tissues and is an important tool in evaluating exposure to chemicals. This report maps HBM studies performed at or initiated by food safety authorities in the Nordic countries and discuss problems and options for further work. The report shows that only few studies have been performed and it differs among the countries. Reasons for this could be that sampling blood and urine is demanding, there are ethical and privacy issues and analytical costs are high. More cooperation with researchers and between countries is needed. Food safety authorities have special responsibilities in cases of emergencies and disasters. In these cases HBM provides a good tool for exposure measurement but cooperation and infrastructure should be established beforehand.
The purpose of the project has been to identify how date labelling legislation on food is practised in Denmark, Finland, Norway and Sweden and how the durability can be affected in the food supply chain. The project recommends enhanced guidance for manufacturers, retailers and consumers. When prolonging the durability of the product, the retail waste decreased significantly. The results show that the type of packaging gas and storage temperature is of great importance for the durability of food products. Consumer studies reveal a need for guidance on how long products may be eaten after opening of the package. The individual consumer needs clearer and more easily accessible information on different labelling, storage temperature and durability of products.
The Nordic Food Analysis Network project (NFAN, 2013–2016) focused on creating a common, simple communicational platform to share history and plans on chemical food analyses. This report describes the activities that have taken place in the area of chemical food analysis, for the national food composition databases of the Nordic countries, at the national level, since 2000 and specific activities of this network between the years of 2013–2016. This network picked fibre, iodine and sodium as specific nutrients to focus on during this project, and comparative analyses of selected Nordic food items were carried out during this project with external funding. The results of the activities are summarized in this project report.
New Nordic Food (NNF), based on the New Nordic Kitchen Manifest, has strived in the last eight years to raise the profile of the Nordic cuisine and the meal experience both in the Nordic Region and internationally. Since the signing of the kitchen manifest, New Nordic Food has evolved into a Nordic social movement. Today, the challenge lies in taking that movement to a new level, so that the Nordic Region can become one of the most outstanding and innovative food regions in the world.