News

OQALI, jointly managed by ANSES and INRA, collects the nutritional information found on the packaging of processed foods. With over 35 000 items listed, almost all of the food industry sectors are now covered. Several reports have been published today, including a study characterising the nutritional quality of the food offer. The study found that “budget”-type products ("entry-level" and "hard-discount" own brands) do not appear to be of inferior nutritional quality. The study also shows that entry-level own brands provide a smaller range of products than the other market segments. Furthermore, own-brand products tend to provide a wider range of nutritional information on their packaging.

For the Fête de la Mer ("Sea Days Celebration"), ANSES and the Nord-Pas de Calais regional council signed a memorandum of cooperation on 10 July 2015 before the Mayor of Boulogne-sur-Mer, also a member of the French Parliament. The aim of this memorandum is to pool resources to develop research in the field of food safety and seafood quality in the Nord-Pas de Calais region.

On 3 June, ANSES was appointed reference laboratory of the World Organisation for Animal Health (OIE) for foot and mouth disease, a major disease that, due to the direct losses it can engender, requires increased vigilance by health authorities. OIE reference laboratories are appointed to monitor the full range of scientific and technical issues surrounding a specific illness or topic. This 17th international reference mandate is recognition of the quality of the Agency's work and its commitment to animal health.

At the request of the Minister of social affairs and health, Professor Serge Hercberg submitted a report in January 2014 that recommends France-wide implementation of a nutritional information programme based on the Rayner's score system developed for the UK's Food Standards Agency. This information programme aims to provide consumers with information that will enable them to choose between food products based on their nutritional qualities. ANSES was asked by the Directorate General for Health (DGS) to assess the technical feasibility of deploying the proposed tool. In the report published today, ANSES concludes that implementation of the nutritional score, as defined by Rayner et al. (2005), appears to be technically feasible but would require supplementary data in addition to the data whose labelling will become mandatory in 2016 under the EU regulatory framework. ANSES also indicates that while the nutritional score seems able to effectively compare a large number of food groups, it does not do so sufficiently for certain other groups (non-alcoholic soft drinks, fats, cheeses, fruit purées, chocolates and chocolate-based products, etc.). Lastly, the Agency emphasises that its work did not aim to evaluate the relevance of using this tool for nutritional labelling, nor its capacity to inform the consumer, to induce changes in behaviour or in the food offer, or its overall relevance with regard to public health.