New and updated World Obesity policy dossiers

In 2019, World Obesity released two new policy dossiers on the management and treatment of obesity in children and youth, and on front-of-pack nutrition labelling. In addition, we also updated our previous policy dossiers as well as hosted a webinar on community-level interventions.

On Thursday 19 September, World Obesity released its sixth policy dossier focused on the management and treatment of obesity in children and youth. For this occasion, we hosted a webinar focused on presenting the recommendations and considerations that we established, discuss inequalities in childhood obesity treatment, different lifestyle and behavioural interventions in the treatment of childhood obesity as well as emerging interventions to treat childhood obesity. You can read our full policy briefing here.

Furthermore, we also released our dossier focused on the implementation of front-of-pack nutrition labelling across Europe. Through a compilation of evidence, the dossier aims to support policymakers, NGOs and other stakeholders to ensure the successful implementation of front-of-pack nutrition policies. Overall, the evidence highlights that front-of-pack nutrition labelling could be an effective policy tool to help promote positive food environments and support consumers in making better and informed food choices. Within the context of the European Union regulatory framework, World Obesity also highlights a series of considerations for a number of stakeholders when developing and implementing front-of-pack nutrition labelling policies, including:

• The need to consider the context, including the dietary patterns, nutritional and health status of the population as well as be informed with regards to the legal framework under which front-of-pack nutrition labelling would be introduced;
• The need to adopt a standardised front-of-pack nutrition labelling scheme to increase the effectiveness of the label and avoid confusion;
• The need to engage stakeholders when developing the labels, while simultaneously ensuring safeguard processes are in place to avoid conflicts of interest;
• The need to implement front-of-pack nutrition labelling policies as part of a broader comprehensive policy portfolio.

For more information, please refer to our policy dossier, our webinar and download our policy briefing.

In addition to the release of two new policy dossiers, we also updated our previous policy dossiers and hosted a webinar on community-level interventions. It focused on presenting a number of key considerations when developing community-level interventions and presented a number of case studies from across the world. You can access the webinar here.