NOURISHING nutrition policy benchmarking tool

Monitoring and benchmarking government policies is important for assessing progress on preventing obesity, which is a key risk factor for cancer and other non-communicable diseases.

The NOURISHING benchmarking tool was developed as part of the CO-CREATE project to assess national government policy actions on nutrition with reference to evidence-based, aspirational standards.

The tool was designed to hold governments accountable to a higher, aspirational standard, rather than comparisons to other countries and currently identified best practices. It was developed based on a review of literature and an extensive participatory process with experts such as policymakers, researchers and civil society, including youth representatives.

What is meant by aspirational standards?

The tools assess national government policy actions with reference to evidence-based, aspirational standards, which is a novel approach compared with existing instruments which compare countries with each other. This approach holds countries to a higher standard than best practice comparisons.

Existing tools use best practice examples, which hold countries to a lower standard and potentially limit demands on governments to innovate and improve. Aspirational criteria hold countries to a higher standard, starting from the premise that current practice is insufficient; this is aimed at encouraging further policy development.

Using the benchmarking tool, we assessed the status of national nutrition activity policy in 30 European countries. You can read the results of our assessment in our NOURISHING policy index brief.

The CO-CREATE project identified the need for an easy-to-use tool to assess both nutrition and physical activity policies that applies aspirational standards to assess national government action in these policy areas.

The tool is part of a package of resources produced by World Cancer Research Fund International on nutrition policy, which also includes a framework and database, collectively known as NOURISHING.

We’ve developed the associated MOVING benchmarking tool for physical activity policy.

> Read more about the development of the NOURISHING benchmarking tool Obesity Reviews

About the tool

The NOURISHING policy benchmarking tool assesses government policies through:

• Policy Areas: these are categories within the NOURISHING framework, such as nutrition labelling.
• Benchmarks: specific standards set within each policy area.
• Indicators: statements reflecting the level of government support for each benchmark.
• Aspirational Policy Attributes: criteria for evaluating the quality of policy design.
• Coding Scheme: a method for scoring the indicators based on their attributes.

Each policy area, such as nutrition label standards and regulations on the use of claims and implied claims on food, is allocated several benchmarks, such as nutrient lists on back of packet; front of pack labels; calorie, nutrient labelling or warning labels on menus; rules on nutrient claims; and rules on health claims. Each benchmark is accompanied by an indicator in the form of a statement of government support, such as “National government supports XXX”. The level of government support is then valued based on the policy attributes and the coding scheme.

The NOURISHING benchmarking tool includes 41 benchmarks across 10 policy areas, providing a comprehensive assessment of national nutrition policies.

Each benchmark is measured using 2 attributes:

• the existence of a policy action (scored as ‘no’ = 0, ‘yes’ = 50) and
• the quality of policy design (scored from 0 to 50).

What does the tool measure?

The NOURISHING benchmarking tool assesses the quality of policy design for national government policy actions to promote healthy diets. It does not assess the level of policy implementation.

What does the tool assess?

The benchmarking tool focuses on specific policy actions implemented by national governments to promote healthy diets. These actions include laws, regulations, programmatic interventions and public information campaigns. The tool does not assess broader policy plans or strategies but evaluates concrete actions resulting from these plans.

Data and application

The tool requires a complete dataset of national nutrition policy actions, collected through a comprehensive scan methodology. It does not benchmark individual policies in isolation but considers the interaction between multiple policy actions. This holistic approach provides a more accurate assessment of government efforts to improve nutrition.

> Read our comprehensive scan methodology

Limitations

The tool has some limitations:

• It only includes national-level policies, excluding regional or local government actions.
• The tools focus on policy actions and exclude other types of policy such as plans or strategies
• It focuses on policy design rather than implementation.
• It does not weight policies by likely impact on population health.

Despite these limitations, the tool provides valuable insights into the quality of national nutrition policies and encourages accountability and policy learning among countries.

Use in different settings

While the tool is currently applied to European countries, it can be adapted for use in other regions with a comprehensive dataset.

This project received funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under Grant Agreement No 774210. This content reflects only the authors’ views and the European Commission is not responsible for any use that may be made of the information it contains.