Food and health

Recommendation 1244 (1994)

Author(s):

Parliamentary Assembly

Origin

Assembly debate on 28 June 1994 (18th Sitting) (see Doc. 7083, report of the Committee on Agriculture and Rural Development, Rapporteur: Mr Alexander). Text adopted by the Assembly on 28 June 1994 (18th Sitting).

Thesaurus

1. The Assembly is aware of the considerable benefits to public health that improvements in diet could bring.

2. It therefore welcomes and acknowledges the work of member states' governments, the World Health Organisation, the European Union, the European Consumers' Organisation and the Council of Europe in this field.

3. It believes that consumers, producers, distributors and the food industry have a common long-term interest in promoting nutritional goals in relevant policy areas, such as health, consumerism, research, education, food and agriculture.

4. Consequently, the Assembly recommends that the Committee of Ministers:

4.1 include in its intergovernmental work programme, in particular with regard to eastern Europe, activities which would promote public health by improving consumers' eating habits, as well as the quality and safety of food. Such activities should include work carried out within the framework of the Partial Agreement in the social and public health field (in the domain of products having direct or indirect repercussions on the human food chain) in order to harmonise legislation, regulations and methods governing, on the one hand, the control of quality, efficiency and innocuousness of products and, on the other hand, the use of toxic products which are harmful to health;

4.2 invite governments of member states and the European Union:

a to adopt nutritional policies while paying due attention to the needs of different population groups (age, diabetes, etc.);

b to integrate such measures into other fields, such as food and agriculture, health, consumer policy, research and education;

c to give more emphasis to research into all aspects of the relationship between diet and health and the safety of food, and to work for more international co-operation and consensus between experts at national and international level in this field;

d to improve school education on the importance of a balanced and healthy diet for human health;

e to promote the production of healthy food through co-operation between producers, consumers and the food industry;

f to organise information campaigns on issues of importance for consumers' choice of a healthy diet;

g to implement nutrition labelling, in line with Assembly Recommendation 1142 (1991) on the labelling of quality food products;

h to upgrade education and training of all professionals and other staff in the food sector (producers, distributors, retailers, the food industry, etc.);

i to make a special effort to assist agricultural producers in taking advantage of, and adapting to, new priorities in nutrition and food quality and new production tasks;

j to work for improvements in the setting, implementation and control of food hygiene standards;

k in connection with North-South relations, particularly with black Africa, to help these countries develop their own agricultural resources with a view to self-sufficiency, to encourage research into the nutritional value of foodstuffs and to devise food products suited to their cultures.