The nutrition commitment model as part of the social commitment to sustainable development
The nutrition commitment has been made part of the national commitment to sustainable development (www.commitment2050.fi), which is part of the national implementation of Finland's action plan for global sustainable development (Agenda2030 (in Finnish)). You will find a separate nutrition commitment button on the front page of the social commitment website. The nutrition commitment website, which you can enter by clicking the button, functions in the same manner as the rest of the Commitment 2050 pages.
The nutrition commitments made by food business operators are automatically entered into the equality goal, through which they will also be incorporated into the global goals for sustainable development (goal areas 2 and 3).
On its website, the National Nutrition Council produces, publishes and maintains material on the operating model and the content commitments to support the operators that are joining the commitment.
You can register on the nutrition commitment website and make your commitments by entering your targets and the measures to achieve them. You will report on your progress as part of the annual monitoring process using the follow-up form provided on the website.
Nutrition commitments are public. The statistical data collected from the commitments will be included in the annual reports of the National Nutrition Council.
How can I join the nutrition commitment?
1. Registration
You should first register by creating a user account and logging in. After you have logged in, you can make your own nutrition commitments in different content areas and comment on the commitments made by other operators. You must log in to prepare your nutrition commitments, edit them and enter follow-up information.
In connection with your registration, you will be assigned into user category, and when making your nutrition commitment, you will be placed into one of the following sectors:
- Food industry
- Importer of food products
- Retail trade
- Municipal catering services and municipally owned companies
- Lunch restaurant
- Fast food restaurant
- Cafe
- School
- Daycare centre
- Employer company
- Media
- Organisations
- Other (please specify)
2. Select a nutrition commitment
To start the selection process, click the button on the front page of the www.commitment2050.fi website. You can now view all content areas of the nutrition commitement (so called cards at website): salt, quality of fats, sugar, vegetables, products for children, portion and package sizes, lunches and recipes. All approved nutrition commitments already made by food business operators will also appear on the screen.
Place the cursor on a content area and you will see a short description of the area and the targets set for it.
2.1 Make your nutrition commitment
Click the Participate button on the upper right hand corner of the page --> Select nutrition commitment
A form containing detailed instructions for completion will be displayed. When completing the form, remember that your nutrition commitments can also be viewed by all other users. Try to keep the headings concise so that the good acts stand out from the text. You must also ensure that the contents that can be viewed by others are in accordance with the Finnish food legislation (especially the regulation on nutrition and health claims). You do not need to prepare your commitments on one occasion; you can save your information and resume the work later. When your commitments have been approved, you can no longer edit their content.
2. 2. Publish your commitment
The nutrition commitments must meet certain basic criteria (in English). You must fully understand what they mean and confirm that your commitments are in accordance with the criteria. After you have given your confirmation, you can make the form ready for publication at the bottom of the display. The form will now be forwarded electronically to the National Nutrition Council for approval after which it will be published on the website. The approval process will take about one week (please note that the National Nutrition Council is unable to process any applications during holiday periods). The drafts and the published commitments can be viewed under your profile. Read more in the description of the nutrition commitment (in Finnish).
3. Reporting
You must set concrete and measurable targets for your nutrition commitments and a report on the progress towards achieving them must be submitted each year. For this reason, you must prepare your indicators carefully and plan them so that they can be used in the reporting.
For preparing the report, go to the commitment page and click ‘Report’ at the bottom of the original nutrition commitment form.
You will receive the reporting request automatically at certain time of the year. The first reporting period will start one year from the opening of the operating model (on 8 June 2018).
The program will remind you if you have failed to prepare the report by the deadline. If you fail to submit your report by the deadline given in the third reminder, the program will close the commitment automatically when the deadline expires. In that case ‘Not implemented’ will be entered in the system report.
Remember to save the information when entering reporting data.
4. Other use - ‘Like’ and ‘Comment’
If you have logged in, you can comment and like nutrition commitments and share them in the social media (hashtag #nutrition commitment). You can also search for nutrition commitments under specific content commitments or using free word search. You can sort nutrition commitment cards randomly or use the ‘newest’ or ‘most liked’ as criteria. The page contains up-to-date follow-up information about the commitments, comments and likes. However, the content commitments of the National Nutrition Council always appear at the top of the page. In your own profile view, you can view your own nutrition commitments and the measures associated with them, as well as the likes and comments that you have received. The profile also shows how many users have seen you profile and how many activities have been shared in the social media. Statistics on the commitments that have attracted the most attention are also collected under the profile.
Each nutrition commitment is given a running number when it is entered into the system. You can identify your commitment with this number.