Health Minister launches food and nutrition policy and action plan

Health Minister Godfrey Farrugia launched a food and nutrition policy and action plan this morning.

Amongst other areas, the plan aims to review Maltese food-based dietary guidelines, carry out a feasibility study on the affordability and accessibility of healthy foods, create awareness about the dangers of high salt and sugar intake, and to promote a healthy diet in schools.

The minister was speaking at a half-day conference held at the Aula Magna in Valletta. Farrugia said that studies have shown that malnutrition has proved to be of major detriment to health and expressed his concerns that obesity in Malta continues to rise, in children and in adults.

“Studies have shown that European diets are not ideal, with an estimated one in three cancer cases resulting from malnutrition,” he said.

Charmaine Gauci, director of the Health Promotion and Disease Prevention directorate, said that in Malta, diabetes, hypertension and hypercholesterolemia are among the leading causes of death.

Referring to Eurostat statistics, which show that Malta’s men are the most obese in the EU and Malta’s women rank third, Gauci said “Malta was winning medals it did not want to win.”

The goal of this strategy was to assist the Maltese population in adopting a healthy dietary pattern and for the country to make health and nutrition a priority.