Nutrition in all policies

The WHO European Action Plan for Food and Nutrition Policy (2007-2012) was developed through a series of consultations with Member States, international organizations, professional societies, non-governmental organizations and public health experts initiated at the Ministerial Conference on counteracting obesity in November 2006.

This Action Plan addresses the main public health challenges in the area of nutrition, food safety and food security by recommending six action areas:

1. Supporting a healthy start
2. Ensuring a safe, healthy and sustainable food supply
3. Providing comprehensive information and education to consumers
4. Promoting integrated actions to address related determinants
5. Strengthening nutrition and food safety in the health sector
6. Monitoring and evaluation.

The document describes the role and expectations from WHO and international partners and illustrates the steps for implementation of national policies.

This action plan is the second of its kind. In September 2000, the WHO Regional Committee for Europe endorsed the 1st European Action Plan for Food and Nutrition Policy for the WHO European Region, 2000–2005, calling for the development of food and nutrition policies in Member States. Member States actively developed policies related to food and nutrition, but implementation still appeared to be a major challenge.

Following a meeting of national counterparts for nutrition and food safety in France, 4-6 June 2007, the present plan was endorsed by the WHO Regional Committee in September 2007.  A document covering the whole preparatory process of developing the action plan is available upon request.

At a meeting of nutrition and food safety counterparts in Brussels, 22-23 September 2008, participants reviewed action taken since the endorsement of the action plan and discussed further implementation.