Ireland

Dr. Janas Harrington is leading the Irish team to implement the INFORMAS ‘Public Sector’ module. The Irish team, which is based in the HRB Centre for Health and Diet Research in the School of public Health University College Cork, has good working relationships with the Irish Department of Health and key stakeholders responsible for framing and developing food policy in Ireland.  Food-EPI Ireland was published in November 2020 and the Report is available. Ireland Food-EPI is part of the EU JPI funded Policy Evaluation Network (PEN).

Planning is underway to conduct the Private sector module, led by Dr. Janas Harrington (University College Cork).

Planning is also underway to conduct the Food Retail Module in Ireland, led by Ms. Sinead O’Mahony (University College Dublin and Food Safety Authority of Ireland), Dr. Eileen Gibney (University College Dublin), Prof. Geraldine Doyle (University College Dublin), and Ms. Nuala Collins (Food Safety Authority of Ireland).

 

Dr Janas Harrington

Senior Lecturer in Public Health Nutrition,

HRB Centre for Health and Diet Research,

School of Public Health,

University College Cork, Ireland

Phone: +353 21 4205504

Email: Janas Harrington

 

 

Sinead O’Mahony

Food Retail Researcher

University College Dublin &

Food Safety Authority of Ireland

Email: Sinead O’Mahony

Module Status (as at September 2024) Outputs
Public Sector (Food EPI)
  • Outputs published

1,2,4,5, 6,7
Private Sector

Developing Ireland’s Business Impact Assessments tools:

  • BIA-Obesity (Business Impact Assessment on Obesity and Population-level Nutrition) tool, which provides a framework to benchmark food company policies and commitments related to obesity and population nutrition. The tool includes a set of context-based indicators for food and non-alcoholic beverage manufacturers, quick service restaurants and supermarkets. Key areas assessed encompass product formulation, product labeling, product and brand promotion, product accessibility and relationships with other organizations.
  • BIA-Obesity reports are expected to be published by December 2024.
  • BIA-Sustainability: following the BIA-Obesity model, Ireland is working on a set of indicators to benchmark food company policies and commitments related to environmental sustainability.
  • The team has been conducting the BIAs Ireland as part of the FEAST consortium (feast2030.eu) and submitted a FEAST deliverable with some interim results for Ireland: FEAST – Report on BIA-Obesity/Sustainability assessments (zenodo.org).
 3
Food Composition    
Food Labelling    
Food Promotion    
Food Prices    
Food Retail    
Food Provision    
Food Trade & Investment    

Food EPI

Food-EPI was completed in Ireland in 2020 by the Policy Evaluation Network and the School of Public Health of University College Cork, Ireland. The 2020 Report and supporting documents are now available:
  1. Harrington JM, Griffin C, and Vandevijvere S, for the Food-EPI project team. The Healthy Food Environment Policy Index (Food-EPI): Evidence Document for Ireland 2020. Cork, School of Public Health, University College Cork 2020. Ireland Evidence Document
  2. Harrington JM, Leydon CL, Twohig CH, and Vandevijvere S, for the Food-EPI project team. Policies for Tackling Obesity and Creating Healthier Food Environments in Ireland: Food-EPI 2020. Current policies and priority actions. Cork, School of Public Health, University College Cork 2020. Ireland Food-EPI Report 2020
See also:
 

Private Sector

3. BIAs Ireland as part of the FEAST consortium interim results: FEAST – Report on BIA-Obesity/Sustainability assessments (zenodo.org).

Conference Presentations

4. Harrington JM.  The Food – Environment Policy Index (Food-EPI): monitoring and benchmarking government policies and actions to improve the healthiness of food environments in Ireland: Process Outline. SPHeRE Conference, Dublin February 25th, 2020 [Oral Presentation]

5. Harrington JM, Leydon C.  Monitoring and benchmarking government policies and actions to improve the healthiness of food environments in Ireland: Food Environment Policy Index (Food-EPI Ireland).  Health Promotion Conference, NUI Galway. June 18th2020 [Oral presentation]

6. Harrington JM, Leydon C.  Monitoring and benchmarking government policies and actions to improve the healthiness of food environments in Ireland: Food Environment Policy Index (Food-EPI Ireland).  Society for Social Medicine and Population Health Virtual Conference September, 2020 [Oral Presentation]

7. Workshop “Policy Evaluation: a comprehensive European approach by the JPI HDHL Network PEN”, Annual Scientific Meeting of the Society of Social Medicine and Population Health, 18 September 2020 in Cambridge, United Kingdom8. Webinar “Measuring policy actions for healthy and sustainable food and physical activity environments”, A SIG Policies and Environment webinar, PEN/ISBNPA, 22 September 2020.

 
Additional Publications
  • Irish Health Research Board
  • EH JPI Healthy Diet for Healthy Life (HDHL)