Private Sector
The food industry plays a critical role in shaping food environments and it has an important part to play in improving population diets and addressing obesity.
As part of the private sector module of INFORMAS, we seek to monitor and benchmark food industry actions, with a focus on their influence on the healthiness of food environments and efforts to improve population diets and address obesity.
Aims:
To develop and implement standardised approaches to monitoring and evaluating the structure, policies and practices of the food industry
Expected outcomes:
- Strengthen mechanisms to increase the accountability of the food industry for their role in improving population diets and addressing obesity
- Inform government and food industry policies for improving population diets and addressing obesity
- Build knowledge, tools and skills in monitoring, evaluation and advocacy related to public health
If you would like to contribute to the work on INFORMAS in this area, please get in touch with Gary Sacks or the other module leaders.
For the Module Overview video describing protocols, methodological developments, and common FAQs, please follow the link here.
Gary Sacks (Coordinator)
Associate Professor, Deakin University, Australia
A/Director, Global Obesity Centre (GLOBE)
Email: Dr Gary Sacks
Stefanie Vandevijvere
Senior Scientist Nutrition and Health,
Scientific Institute of Public Health (Sciensano), Brussels, Belgium
Email: Stefanie Vandevijvere
Sally Mackay
Senior Research Fellow
The University of Auckland, New Zealand
Email: Sally Mackay
Lana Vanderlee
Assistant Professor
Université de Laval, Canada
Email: Lana Vanderlee
William Ng See Hoe
Taylor’s University, Malaysia
Email: Dr. William Ng See Hoe
Melissa Mialon
Trinity College Dublin
Email: Melissa Mialon
Our overall approach to monitoring and evaluating the structure, policies and practices of the food industry was laid out when INFORMAS was first established in 2013.
We have refined and extended our approach over time, and are consistently refining our methods and tools. Please get in touch with one of the module leaders to find out the latest developments, access detailed protocols, and to discuss implementing aspects of our approach.
The cornerstone of the private sector approach is the BIA-Obesity (Business Impact Assessment – Obesity and population nutrition) tool – click here for more details.
| Monitoring component | A. Industry and market structure | B. Company policies and commitments related to nutrition | C. Company practices related to nutrition | D. Market-based strategies | E. Non-market strategies (Corporate Political Activity) |
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| Contact person | Ben Wood, Deakin University, Australia | Gary Sacks, Deakin University, Australia; Sally Mackay, University of Auckland, New Zealand |
Lana Vanderlee, Université Laval, Canada | Ben Wood, Deakin University, Australia | Melissa Mialon, Trinity College Dublin, Ireland |
Use of protocols
Please read the terms and conditions regarding the use of the protocols. You must complete and return this agreement if you are using and/or adapting protocols.
You may use, modify and reproduce protocols, but the work that results from using the INFORMAS resources remains available to the INFORMAS group and falls under the same copyleft principles as the original protocol (i.e., you can’t claim copyright on protocols you develop based on INFORMAS resources).
You don’t have to share the whole work that results from using the INFORMAS resources, but are expected to share:
- Any modifications or updates you make to the protocol (e.g., updates for your own country)
- The final (cleaned) data as collected using the protocol
Aspects of the INFORMAS private sector module have been implemented in a wide range of countries since 2013. Please get in touch with one of the module leaders to discuss further implementation opportunities and plans.
| Country / Region | A. Industry and market structure | B. Company policies and commitments related to nutrition | C. Company practices related to nutrition | D. Market-based strategies | E. Non-market strategies (Corporate Political Activity) |
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| Asia Pacific | |||||
| Regional | · Australia, New Zealand and Fiji - Food industry (2015) | · Soft drinks industry: planned for 2022 | |||
| Australia | · Food manufacturers (2018) · Supermarkets (2018) · Quick service restaurants (2018) · Journal article (2018) · Website | · State of the Food Supply (2020) · State of the Fast Food Supply (2020) · Healthiness of Australian supermarkets (2020) | · Food industry (2016) |
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| Fiji | · Food industry (2016) |
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| Malaysia | · Technical report (2019) · Journal article (2019) | ||||
| New Zealand | · Report (2018) · Journal article (2018) | · State of the Food Supply (2019) | |||
| Thailand | · Food industry (2019) | · Food industry (2018) | |||
| Europe | |||||
| Regional | · Mapping of the food industry in Europe (2021) | · Lobbying (2019) | |||
| Belgium | · Supermarkets: in progress (2021) | ||||
| France | · Supermarkets: in progress (2021) | · Dairy industry (2017) · Food industry (2018) |
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| Americas | |||||
| Regional | · Latin America and the Caribbean - Ultra-processed food manufacturers (2019) | ||||
| Canada | · Food and non-alcoholic beverage manufacturers: - Report (2019) - Reformulation actions and commitments (2020) · Restaurants: planned for 2022 · Supermarkets: planned for 2022 | · Nutritional quality of the product portfolios of packaged food and beverage companies (2020) | · Food industry (2020) | ||
| Chile | · Food industry (2020) | ||||
| Colombia | · Food industry (2020 and 2021) | ||||
| Mexico | · Sugar-sweetened beverages industry (2020) | ||||
| USA | · Baby food industry (2020) | ||||
| Africa | |||||
| Senegal | · Food industry: planned for 2022 | ||||
| South Africa | · Food industry: planned for 2022 | · Food industry (2020) |
Visit our Publications section to browse publications by module