Table 1. Proposed policy actions on food environments for the Government of New Zealand, prioritized by experts.
| Proposed policy actions | Score (% of total points allocated)a | Rank |
|---|---|---|
| To improve food composition, the government: | 372 (8.6) | 1 |
| – sets sodium targets for the food groups that are major contributors to sodium intake, based on international best practice targets; | ||
| – establishes a food standard to minimize the unhealthy fatty acid content of commercial deep frying fats; and | ||
| – examines other opportunities to reduce the amount of salt, sugar and saturated fat in foods and beverages. | ||
| To improve food labelling (nutrient disclosure), the government: | 260 (6.0) | 10 |
| – requires trans fats to be added in the nutrition information panel where they exceed a particular level; and | ||
| – examines the potential for including ‘added sugars’ in the nutrition information panel. | ||
| To improve food labelling (preventing misleading claims), the government investigates the application of the nutrient profiling scoring criterion14 to restrict the use of nutrient content claims on packaged unhealthy foods (especially irrelevant claims such as no cholesterol claims on plant-based foods). | 278 (6.4) | 8 |
| To improve food labelling (consumer-friendly nutrition quality labels), the government endorses the Health Star Rating system for implementation from 2014 on a voluntary basis with provision to move to regulations if there is not wide coverage within two years. | 329 (7.6) | 5 |
| To improve food labelling (energy disclosure), the government requires all quick service chain restaurants to display kJ labelling (per serving as sold) on their menu boards. | 242 (5.6) | 12 |
| To reduce unhealthy food promotion to children, the government introduces regulations to restrict the marketing of unhealthy foods, as defined by the nutrient profiling scoring criterion to children and adolescents (e.g. younger than 16 years) through: | 364 (8.4) | 2 |
| – broadcast media, with initial priorities for restriction of advertising through television; and | ||
| – non-broadcast media, with initial priorities for restriction of advertising through sports sponsorship, food packaging and point-of-sale advertising. | ||
| To reduce unhealthy food promotion to children, the government implements policies to ensure that schools and early childhood education and care services, are free of commercial promotion of unhealthy foods, as defined by the MoH food and beverage classification system. | 341 (7.8) | 3 |
| To discourage the consumption of unhealthy foods and beverages, the government: | 320 (7.4) | 6 |
| – introduces a significant (at least 20%) excise tax on sugar-sweetened beverages; and | ||
| – explores how the tax revenue could be applied to create healthy food environments and promote healthy diets. | ||
| To ensure that taxpayer-funded food for children is healthy, the government requires all programs involving subsidised or supplied food for children (e.g. school breakfast programs) to meet the food and nutrition guidelines as outlined in the food and beverage classification system. | 270 (6.2) | 9 |
| To ensure that children’s settings provide healthy food, the government enacts policies that ensure schools and early childhood education and care services provide or sell foods which meet the food and nutrition guidelines as outlined in the food and beverage classification system. | 330 (7.6) | 4 |
| To show national leadership, the government develops and implements healthy food service policies throughout the public health sector (e.g. MoH, hospitals, DHBs, public health units). | 284 (6.5) | 7 |
| To stimulate the uptake of healthy food service policies and actions, the government provides support and training systems for children’s settings, government sector and private sector workplaces (particularly small to medium businesses). | 236 (5.4) | 14 |
| To support local communities achieve healthy food environments for children, the government reviews the adequacy of the current local government legislation with a view to strengthening local governments’ authority to create healthy food environments for children (e.g. ensuring ‘green food zones’ around schools to minimize unhealthy food outlets and advertising. | 254 (5.9) | 11 |
| To protect the health of New Zealanders, the government includes formal and explicit population nutrition and health risk assessments as part of their national interest analysis on trade and investment agreements. | 228 (5.3) | 15 |
| To avoid exposure to being sued by transnational corporations, the government ensures that specific and explicit provisions are included in trade and investment agreements allowing the Government of New Zealand to preserve its regulatory capacity to protect and promote public health. | 237 (5.5) | 13 |
DHB: District Health Board; kJ: kilo Joule; MoH: Ministry of Health.
a The total points available per proposed policy action were 4345. Two out of 58 experts allocated less than 75 points. Scores cannot be compared to the scores of the infrastructure support actions which were allocated a higher number of points by the experts. Priority actions are listed in bold.