Because messages such as “eat 5 fruits and vegetables every day” or “avoid snacking between meals” are useful but not enough of an incentive, a report submitted Tuesday to the Minister of Health, Marisol Touraine, wants to go even further to teach the French to recognize foods that are good for their health and those that are not.
“Fruit and vegetable” tickets
Pr Serge Hercberg, nutrition specialist (Inserm) and author of the report wishes to put in place a number of measures to educate the French inbalanced diet. It thus proposes to distribute non-exchangeable “fruit and vegetables” tickets to the most deprived families so that the price is no longer a barrier to the consumption of these fresh products. Likewise, it recommends the distribution of “sport tickets” to enable families to register their children for a sporting activity.
A color code to know the nutritional value of foods
The report also recommends the creation of signage on food packaging, on supermarket shelves or even in fast food restaurants. This colorful logo aims to make it easy for consumers to navigate to better balance their diet. The aim is to establish an “overall nutritional score” for the food, classified from the least favorable to the most favorable.
Surcharged fatty and sweet products
Another measure should make the agri-food giants react: the food taxation according to their nutritional value. So the plain muesli or wholemeal bread would benefit from a reduction in VAT, while the fattier and more salty crisps would have a higher tax. Furthermore, Professor Hecberg would like advertising for “nutritionally” unsavory products to be banned on radio and television between 7 am and 10 pm. A measure that should not defend neither the industrialists, nor the television channels insofar as the advertisements for the food products represent approximately 1.6 million euros per year of income for a channel.
The report is entitled “Proposals for a new impetus for French public health nutritional policy within the framework of the national health strategy”. Another report highlighting the importance of integrating nutrition into chronic disease management (diabetes, cancer …) was handed over to the ministry at the same time.
