By making a nutrition commitment you also accept the basic criteria for the commitment.
You must demonstrate that you have familiarised yourself with the criteria set out below and undertake to observe them.
1. You must support the vision and general objectives laid out for the nutrition commitment and promote at least one content area.
By joining the nutrition commitment you also accept the vision and objectives set out for the operating model.
2. You must consider nutrition as a whole
Reformulation must lead to overall improvements in product quality. Reducing or increasing the amount of a specific nutrient may not affect negatively the other nutrients and the nutritional quality of the product.
- Reducing the amount of added sugars should result in a lower energy content. The energy content may, however, remain unchanged provided that the nutritional quality is improved at the same time (for example, the fibre content is increased). The amount of saturated fats, trans fats or salt may not increase.
- Reducing the content of saturated fats should not lead to higher amounts of trans fats, added sugars, salt or energy.
- When the salt content is reduced, it should also be ensured that the amounts of saturated fats, trans fats, added sugars or energy are not increased.
Source:
Reformulation programme of the High Level Group of the EU Commission
https://ec.europa.eu/health/nutrition_physical_activity/high_level_group_en
http://ec.europa.eu/health/ph_determinants/life_style/nutrition/documents/salt_initiative.pdf
https://ec.europa.eu/health/sites/health/files/nutrition_physical_activity/docs/added_sugars_en.pdf
3. You must act in a nutritionally responsible manner
In your marketing and communications, you must act in a nutritionally responsible manner, which means that you must comply with the EU food information regulation (EU No 1169/2011) and the EU regulation on nutrition and health claims made on foods (EU No 1924/2006) as well as the Consumer Protection Act (38/1978) and applicable guidelines/recommendations for marketing communications.
The nutrition and health claims made in commercial communications in labelling presentation or advertising specific to products or product groups must meet the requirements laid down in the regulation on nutrition and health claims (Article 1(2) of EU No 1924/2006 Article).
It should be noted that as a rule, the reformulation solutions contained in the nutrition commitment targets do not meet the requirements for nutrition and health claims laid down in the regulation on nutrition and health claims. When providing information about your nutrition commitment, you should not formulate your message so that the consumer interprets it as a nutrition or health claim. For this reason, when you are communicating about your nutrition commitment, the message may not be connected with individual products or product groups. You may only present your nutrition commitment as part of your general communications.
In your corporate communications, you can announce your participation/announce that you have made a nutrition commitment as follows:
- Company Ltd is committed to improving the nutritional quality of its products, [with special focus on salt/fats/sugar/vegetables/products intended for children/portion and package sizes/meals/recipes].
- We are supporting the implementation of the nutrition recommendations by joining the nutrition commitment.
- Our company has made a nutrition commitment and we are producing food that helps consumers to adhere to nutrition recommendations.
- We support the implementation of the nutrition recommendations. Our company has made a nutrition commitment.
- Company Ltd has made a nutrition commitment # 0012017 (link to the commitment website).
- Our company has joined the nutrition commitment. Continuation...
- Our company has made a nutrition commitment. Continuation...
- Continuation:
- We are helping consumers to reduce their salt intake.
- We are improving the quality of the fats contained in our products/in the meals and snacks that we produce/serve.
- We are helping consumers to reduce their sugar intake.
- We are increasing the content of vegetables in our products/in the meals and snacks that we produce/serve.
- We are improving the nutritional quality of our products/meals/snacks intended for children and will market them in a responsible manner.
- We are helping consumers to reduce their energy intake by producing reasonably sized portions and/or packages.
- We are improving the nutritional quality of our meals and snacks.
- We are improving the nutritional quality of our recipes.
In their marketing and communications, food business operators can help consumers to make dietary choices in accordance with the nutrition recommendations by:
- observing the supplementary recommendations of the Finnish Food and Drink Industries' Federation on marketing directed at children (in Finnish)
- observing the Consumer Ombudsman's guideline on children and foodstuffs marketing (updated in 2015)
- observing the WHO recommendations on marketing communications to children
- observing the recommendations of the Finnish Food and Drink Industries' Federation on marketing communications for food products (in Finnish)
- observing the Framework for Responsible Food and Beverage Marketing Communications of the International Chamber of Commerce (ICC)
4.1 The targets must be concrete, specific and significant
It is not enough to pledge to 'promote a change' or 'work for a change'.
When making a commitment, you must define the concrete and numerical targets in accordance with your own criteria for importance.
In order to ensure that the changes resulting from your commitments will have maximum impact, you should prioritise the commitments to widely used products, product groups and measures and so that as many population groups as possible can benefit from the changes.
4.2 The targets must be measurable and it must be possible to monitor progress towards them
In the nutrition commitment model, the earliest base year for the measures is 2015 and improvements compared with this year must be achieved by the year 2020.
Successful implementation of the commitments is assessed with indicators that the operators must specify when preparing their commitments. The base values, target values, timetable and the expected progress must also be set out in the commitment. Different operators may have different indicators for assessing progress and for defining the targets. The progress towards achieving the targets laid out in the commitments is monitored and reports on them compiled using the indicators specified by the operators.
4.3 Your commitment must lead to new products and practices
The nutrition commitment is part of the implementation of the society's commitment to sustainable development (Commitment 2050). The aim is to offer consumers products with higher nutritional quality and create new and better nutritionally responsible practices. The measures proposed as part of the commitment must lead to permanent or long-term improvements. The targets laid out in the commitment must also be considered in the development of new products and practices.