site.btaSofia Hosts EU Conference on Healthy Nutrition for Children

Sofia, February 6 (BTA) - An expert conference entitled "The Healthy Future of Europe: Healthy Nutrition for Children" took place here on Tuesday within the framework of the Bulgarian Presidency of the EU Council.

The agenda covered the impact of nutrition and food on health (ranging from breastfeeding to epigenetics): healthy eating habits as key health determinants throughout lifetime, options to strengthen policies regulating marketing to foods intended for children, and traditional diets and foods and their impact on health.

The keynote speech at the conference was delivered by John Ryan, Director for Public Health, Country Knowledge and Crisis Management at the European Commission Directorate General for Health and Consumer Protection.

Ryan told reporters that 70 per cent of the health spending in the EU goes for the treatment of chronic diseases. He noted the importance of a gradual reduction of the content of trans fats, salt and sugar in foods. The Commission has proposed special rules for the advertising of foods with high fat, sugar and salt content, he added.

National Ombudsman Maya Manolova, who took part in the forum, told journalists that a single European authority should be in charge of food control. Manolova also called for larger financing for research into the influence of food additives on the human body and specified that this research should be conducted at the EU level.

Bulgarian Deputy Health Minister Jeni Nacheva said that Bulgaria has statutory regulations for child nutrition in the various age groups. "We count on the results of today's dialogue, and we will be talking with business about an improvement of child nutrition," she added.

On the sidelines of the conference, pupils of a secondary school in Smolyan (South Central Bulgaria) demonstrated a free-of-charge mobile phone application which they have designed and which makes it possible to scan the label of a food product and get a description of its ingredients, whether they are authorized for use in the EU and what potential health hazards they pose.