A new interministerial strategy for the promotion of healthy eating in Portugal: implementation and initial results

ObjectiveTo describe the implementation, main intervention areas and initial results of the Integrated Strategy for the Promotion of Healthy Eating (EIPAS) in Portugal.MethodsEIPAS was published as a Law, in December of 2017, as a result of a collaboration between several ministries, including the Finance, Internal Affairs, Education, Health, Economy, Agriculture, and Sea Ministries, aiming at improving the dietary habits of the Portuguese population. The working group, led by the Ministry of Health, developed this strategy for over a year. The framework produced was based on WHO and European Commission recommendations as well as on relevant data from the last Portuguese dietary intake survey (2015/2016). EIPAS also reflects the results of a public hearing, including the food industry, among others, and the experience gathered, since 2012, through the National Programme for the Promotion of Healthy Eating. It considers the health in all policies' challenge set by WHO and has four different strategic areas, namely (1) creation of healthier food environments, (2) improvement of the quality and accessibility of healthy food choices for consumers, (3) promotion and development of literacy, in order to encourage healthy food choices, and (4) promotion of innovation and entrepreneurship. In order to achieve these goals, a set of 51 actions was established and assigned to the seven ministries involved.ResultsUnder the scope of this strategy, Portugal has already implemented several actions, including (1) definition of standards for food availability at all public healthcare institutions; (2) implementation of a sugar tax on sweetened beverages; (3) implementation of a voluntary agreement with the food industry sector for food reformulation (work in progress); (4) design of a proposal for an interpretative model of front-of-pack food labelling; (5) improvement of the nutritional quality of food aid programmes for low-income groups; and (6) regulation of marketing of unhealthy foods to children.ConclusionsFor the first time, Portugal has a nutrition policy based on the WHO concept of health in all policies' and on the national data on food intake. The implementing process of all 51 actions and the inherent complexities and difficulties found so far have made this process be an authentic political and social laboratory that deserves to be followed

View from a hot air balloon of the Edmund Barton building, Barton, Canberra, April 2007, 2 [picture] /

Title devised by cataloguer based on information from acquisition documentation.; Part of the collection: E.A. Crome aviation project.; Acquired in digital format; access copy available online.; The National Library acknowledges the support of Balloon Aloft and the Canberra Balloon Fiesta.; Mode of access: Internet via World Wide Web.; Photographed by a staff member of the National Library of Australia, 2007

Feeding ecology of the common dolphin (Delphinus delphis) in Western Iberian waters: has the decline in sardine (Sardina pilchardus) affected dolphin diet?

16 pages, 5 tables, 5 figuresPredator diet is expected to respond to changes in the abundance of important prey items. We investigated whether common dolphin diet has changed with changes in the pelagic fish community off the Iberian Peninsula in recent years, in particular with reference to the decline of sardine (Sardina pilchardus) and the increase of Atlantic chub mackerel (Scomber colias) and scads (Trachurus spp.), and estimated how much fish was removed by common dolphins in coastal waters of mainland Portugal. Based on analysis of stomach contents of stranded animals from 2010 to 2013 (n = 150), we related diet composition to sardine abundance, dolphin size and sex, season and region. Despite the decline in sardine stocks in recent years, sardines were the most important prey of common dolphins, as was previously reported in the 1990s, followed by chub mackerel and scads. However, small sardines have disappeared from the diet, consistent with recent poor recruitment to the stock. The relative importance of these pelagic species in the diet increased significantly with increasing dolphin length. The dietary importance of chub mackerel also varied regionally, with higher intake on the southern coast. Finally, we compared the estimated biomass of fish removed by dolphins with that taken by fisheries. We found that even with the severe quota restrictions on sardine catches, total biomass removed by fisheries was over five times greater than the estimated removal by common dolphins. Our results confirm the previously reported preference for energy-rich prey, especially sardine, suggesting that common dolphins in Portuguese waters specialise in feeding on this speciesThis work was funded by the projects SafeSea (EEA-Grants) and MarPro (European Commission Life Programme, NAT/PT/00038). This study received additional support from the Portuguese Foundation for Science and Technology (FCT) through grants SFRH/BPD/64889/2009 to A. Marçalo, SFRH/BD/51416/2011 to L. Nicolau, and SFRH/BD/30240/2006 to M. Ferreira. J. Giménez was supported by the Spanish Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness, through the Severo Ochoa Program for Centers of Excellence in R + D + I (SEV-2012-0262).Peer reviewe