Advancing Public Health on the Changing Global Trade and Investment Agenda Comment on "The Trans-Pacific Partnership: Is It Everything We Feared for Health?"

A Fit-for-Purpose Nutrient Profiling Model to Underpin Food and Nutrition Policies in South Africa

South Africa (SA) is facing a rising prevalence of obesity and diet-related chronic diseases. The government is seeking to develop effective, evidence-based policy measures to address this. A well-designed, fit-for-purpose nutrient profiling model (NPM) can aid policy development. The aim of this study was to develop a fit-for-purpose NPM in SA. Steps included: (1) determining the purpose and target population; (2) selecting appropriate nutrients and other food components to include; (3) selecting a suitable NPM type, criteria and base; and (4) selecting appropriate numbers and thresholds. As part of the evaluation, the nutritional composition of packaged foods containing nutritional information (n = 6747) in the SA food supply chain was analyzed, a literature review was undertaken and various NPMs were evaluated. Our findings indicated that it is most appropriate to adapt an NPM and underpin regulation with a restrictive NPM that limits unhealthy food components. The Chile 2019 NPM was identified as suitable to adapt, and total sugar, saturated fat, sodium and non-sugar sweetener were identified as appropriate to restrict. This NPM has the potential to underpin restrictive policies, such as front-of-package labelling and child-directed marketing regulations in SA. These policies will support the fight against obesity and NCDs in the country.

Food environment solutions for childhood obesity in Latin America and among Latinos living in the United States

The food environment is a major contributor to unhealthy diets in children and, therefore, to the increasing rates of obesity. Acclaimed by scholars across the world, Latin American countries have been leaders in implementing policies that target different aspects of the food environment. Evidence on the nature and to what extent children are exposed and respond to unhealthy food environments in the region and among Latinos in the United States is, however, deficient. The objective of this review is to use the integrated International Network for Food and Obesity/noncommunicable diseases (NCDs) Research, Monitoring and Action Support (INFORMAS) framework to create healthy food environment to (i) compare the key elements of childhood obesity-related food environments in Latin America and for Latinos living in the United States; (ii) describe the evidence on solutions to improve childhood obesity-related food environments; and (iii) identify research priorities to inform solutions to fight childhood obesity in these populations. We found that an integrated body of evidence is needed to inform an optimal package of policies to improve food environments to which children in Latin America and Latino children in the United States are exposed and more efficiently translate policy solutions to help curb growing childhood obesity levels across borders.