Targeted subsidies

• Policies aiming to increase fruit and vegetables intake indirectly increase fibre intake. For instance the EU fruit, vegetable and milk scheme provides fruit, vegetables and milk to children in schools.  The scheme provides financing through the EU's Common Agricultural Policy to help promote the benefits of healthy eating to children and encourage them to increase their consumption of fruit, vegetables and milk.

School food policies

EU ( JRC 2014 )

• In the EU, 15 EU countries (out 28 countries plus Norway and Switzerland) have included fibre intake in their School Food Policies standards. Recommended intakes are expressed as grams per meal or as grams per 1000 Kcal for meals served to school children.
• For example, in Croatia, school meals must contain more than 10 g of fibre per 1000 kcal of energy ( Croatian National Food Guidelines ).

Australia (Queensland) ( Smart Choices (pdf))

• The 'Smart Choices' school standard relies on nutrient profiling system based on energy, sugar, sodium, fibre and saturated fat content. 'Red' category foods (e.g. foods to eat occasionally) are those with less than 1 g/fibre per serving or with less than 1.5 g/fibre per serving in case of muffins, cakes and sweet pasties.

Initiatives to increase availability

Belgium (Flanders) ( JRC 2014 )

• The Flanders school food policy (SFP) emphasizes that in vending machines, a balanced selection of drinks (including water, milk, and fruit juices) and snacks (including fruit, high-fibre biscuits, and dairy) should be available. Healthier options should be promoted through lower price or more access points.

Food reformulation

EU (EU Platform Monitoring (pdf))

• The EU Platform on Diet, Physical Activity and Health is a European Commission led and co-ordinated forum for EU stakeholder organisations, ranging from industry to consumer protection and NGOs that are voluntarily committing to tackle current trends in unhealthy diets and lack of physical activity. Various private food sector commitments aim to reformulate packaged foods and improve their nutritional profile by increasing, whenever possible, the amount of dietary fibre.

Standards in specific locations (e.g. health facilities, workplace)

UK (Scotland) ( NHS Scotland 2016 (pdf) )

• The Scottish government has set guidelines for retailers within healthcare settings. These include standards about dietary fibre content in foods available; for example, at least 50% of breakfast cereals sold in such settings must provide 5 g of dietary fibre for 100g of product.

Finland ( NOURISHING framework )

• To qualify for government subsidies, meals served at universities must abide by specific nutrition criteria on salt, fibre, total fat and saturated fats content, for all meal components.

Labelling legislation

EU

• EU Regulation 1169/2011 on food information to consumers states that the amount of dietary fibre can be among the nutritional information on pre-packed foods to be provided to the consumers (EU 2011).
• EU Regulation 1924/2006 includes rules for nutrition claims made on foods. For dietary fibre, nutrition claims comprise of 'source of fibre' and 'high in fibre' ( EC 2006 ).

Voluntary labelling

Denmark, Iceland, Norway, Sweden, Lithuania ( Swedish National food agency )

• The Keyhole health logo labelling system by the Swedish National Food Agency is used primarily in Scandinavian countries. It is based on a nutrient profile model and aims to identify healthier packaged food choices within a food category, and to stimulate food manufacturers to reformulate and develop healthier products. Fibre content is one of the nutrient criteria, and thresholds depend on the product category.

France ( Sante publique France 2017 )

• The French Nutriscore front-of-pack labelling scheme encourages consumption of fibre (along with proteins and fruits and vegetables), and assigns a 'positive point' score which depends on the level of fibre content per 100g of food product.
• The scheme provides scoring thresholds using both NSP and AOAC fibre measurement; indicatively, no positive points are given for fibre content <0,7 and ≤ 0,9 g/100 g of product respectively for NSP and AOAC fibre, while 5 positive points are given for fibre content >3,5 and ≥ 4,7 g/100 g of product respectively for NSP and AOAC fibre.

Croatia ( Croatian NPS 2016 )

• 'Healthy Living' is a voluntary labelling scheme with nutrient profiles for different food categories. The scheme is used as a benchmark for public health campaigns but also as a scientific basis for a national initiative on food marketing restraints. Minimum fibre content is one of the nutrient criteria, and thresholds depend on the product category.

Public health campaigns

Denmark ( Danish Whole Grain Partnership 2014 (pdf) )

• The Whole grain campaign is a public-private partnership between Danish government, health NGOs and a number of food producers aimed to increase the accessibility of wholegrain products and awareness about the beneficial effects of wholegrain. The campaign also includes reformulation efforts and the possibility to display a 'choose whole grain first' on flours, flakes, cracked kernels, pasta, noodles and rice containing, among others, more than 6 g/100g of fibre.

Recommendations and guidelines

EU (Food-Based Dietary Guidelines in Europe page)

• Food-based dietary guidelines in many EU MS recommend promoting dietary fibre intake through the consumption of fruit, vegetables and whole grains.