The regulatory governance conditions that support effective food policies for population nutrition: a qualitative comparative analysis

Objective: To identify the regulatory governance factors that lead to food policies achieving improvements in food environment, consumer behaviour and diet-related health outcomes. Design: Qualitative comparative analysis (QCA) was used to investigate the relationship between regulatory governance conditions and population nutrition outcomes. The regulatory governance conditions examined entailed: high industry involvement in the policy process, regulatory design, policy instrument design, policy monitoring, and enforcement. Participants: N=29 policy cases in the policy areas of food reformulation, nutrition labelling, food taxation and food marketing. Setting: Policies implemented in 13 countries. Results: Comprehensive monitoring was identified as a necessary regulatory governance condition for food policies to have an impact and was present in 94% of policy cases that had a positive impact on nutrition outcomes. We identified two sufficient combinations of regulatory governance conditions. The first sufficient combination of conditions comprised an absence of high industry involvement in the policy process, combined with the presence of strict regulatory design, best-practice instrument design, and comprehensive monitoring and enforcement. Ninety-six percent of policy cases with positive impacts on nutrition outcomes displayed this combination. The second sufficient combination of conditions comprised an absensce of high industry involvement in the policy process, best practice instrument design and comprehensive monitoring. Eighty-two percent of policy cases with positive impacts on nutrition outcomes displayed this combination. Conclusion: These findings show the importance of regulatory governance on policy outcomes. They suggest a need for more government-led nutrition policy processes and transparent monitoring systems that are independent from industry.

Exploring the transformative potential of urban food

Urban food is a key lever for transformative change towards sustainability. While research reporting on the urban food practices (UFPs) in support of sustainability is increasing, the link towards transformative potential is lacking. This is because research on urban food is often place-based and contextual. This limits the applicability of insights to large-scale sustainability transformations. This paper describes UFPs that aim to contribute to transformative change. We present signposts for potential change based on the types of intended transformative changes as described in the reviewed literature based on the processes and outcomes of the urban food policies and programmes. Secondly, we classify diverse UFPs to elevate them beyond their local, place-based contexts. We find that UFPs carry a lot of potential to facilitate sustainability transformations. Based on that analysis, we provide insights on how urban food research can further contribute to harnessing the transformative potential of UFPs for actionable purposes.

Validation of the Dutch Eating Behavior Questionnaire in a Romanian Adult Population

(1) Background: Obesity, part of the triple global burden of disease, is increasingly attracting research on its preventive and curative management. Knowledge of eating behavior can be useful both at the individual level (to individualize treatment for obesity) and the population level (to implement more suitable food policies). The Dutch Eating Behavior Questionnaire (DEBQ) is a widely used international tool to assess eating behavior, i.e., emotional, external and restricted eating styles. The aim of this study was to validate the Romanian version of DEBQ, as obesity is a major concern in Romania. (2) Methods: Our study tested the psychometric properties of the Romanian version of DEBQ on an adult population and explored the associations of eating behavior with weight status (3) Results: The study showed a factor load similar to the original version of the questionnaire and a very good internal validity (Cronbach’s alpha fidelity coefficient greater than 0.8 for all scales of the questionnaire) for the Romanian version of DEBQ and showed that all of the scales positively correlated with body mass index in both men and women. (4) Conclusions: This study will enable the use of the DEBQ Romanian version on the adult population of Romania where the findings could be incorporated into developing better strategies to reduce the burden of nutrition-related diseases.

Food environment in and around schools and colleges of Delhi and National Capital Region (NCR) in India

Background Food policies and environment (availability, accessibility, affordability, marketing) in and around educational institutes can influence food choices and behaviours of children and adolescents. Methods Cross-sectional, mixed-methods study was implemented in schools (n = 9; Private = 6, Public = 3) and colleges (n = 4) from Delhi and National Capital Region (India). The data was collected from students of schools (n = 253) and colleges (n = 57), parents of school students (n = 190), teachers (n = 12, schools = 9, colleges = 3) and canteen operators of Private schools and colleges (n = 10; schools = 6, and colleges = 4). The primary and secondary data was collected to: 1) identify the strengths and weaknesses of the existing guidelines and directives (desk review); 2) examine food environment, existing policies and its implementation (structured observations, in-depth interviews, surveys, focus group discussions), and; 3) assess food choices, behaviours of students (focus group discussions). The thematic analysis was used for qualitative data and descriptive analysis for quantitative data. Results The available food and beverage options, in and around the participating educational institutes were either high in fat, salt and sugar (HFSS), despite government and educational institute guidelines on restricting the availability and accessibility of HFSS foods. The healthy food and beverage options were expensive compared to HFSS foods both inside and outside educational institutes. In total, 37 vendors (Private = 27; Public:10) were observed outside schools at dispersal and twelve at lunchtime. Around colleges, vendors (n = 14) were seen throughout the day. Students from all Private schools (n = 6) and colleges (n = 2) were exposed to food and beverage advertisements either HFSS (Private schools = 1–3 and colleges = 0–2 advertisements), whereas no advertisements were observed around Public schools. Conclusion It is imperative to implement food policies to improve the food environment in and around educational institutes to ensure the availability of healthy foods to establish and sustain healthy eating behaviours among students. Thus, the study findings emphasise stringent implementation, regular monitoring and surveillance of recently introduced Food Safety and Standards (Safe food and balanced diets for children in school) Regulation 2020, ensuring its compliance through effective enforcement strategies.

The Effect of Saudi Consumers’ Awareness and Attitude Towards Saudi Food and Drugs Authority’ Food Policies on Body Mass Index

This paper aimed to examine the effect of Saudi consumers’ awareness and attitude towards Saudi Food and Drugs Authority’s (SFDA) food policies on their average Body Mass Index (BMI), and whether consumers’ socio-economic variables impacted their BMI. In this cross-sectional study, 584 Saudi adults completed an electronic questionnaire. The results of a two-sample t-test showed that there was a significant difference in the mean of BMI among consumers who followed SFDA news and regulations and those who did not. Also, the findings revealed that the BMI mean of consumers who cooperated with SFDA by reporting food safety violations was significantly different compared to consumers who did not cooperate with SFDA. The results of the binary logit model indicated that several socio-demographic characteristics (age, gender, income) impacted consumers’ BMI. The findings of this study may assist nutrition educators and policy makers to plan programs to improve health-related behaviors.