SPECIFIC OBJECTIVES

1. To describe food supply considering Food Balance Sheets (FBS) of the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) to calculate trends of food supply in Europe and specific European regions during the last decades with emphasis on the development of the supply of dietary energy; the plant and animal sources of energy in the diet; calories from major commodities in European countries; supply of products of animal origin / vegetables /fruits; supply of dietary fat (animal fat vs. vegetable oils); supply of selected food groups.

2. To describe food availability at the household level derived from household budget surveys (HBS) and post-harmonised within the DAFNE (Data Food Networking) project, an initiative funded by the European Commission; to compare the average daily individual food availability of European countries and to monitor trends within countries and European regions, whereas differences in the eating behaviour of socio-demographic sub-groups will also be considered for those countries where data are available.

3. To evaluate energy and nutrient intake as well as food consumption (including drinking water) derived from national or regional dietary surveys at the individual level; to evaluate the nutritional status of the European population broken down by socio-demographic characteristics (sex, age, socio-economic status etc.).

4. To collect and describe data on diet related health indicators and status in Europe; including nutritional anthropometry (body mass index), physical activity, nutrient status, breast-feeding, tobacco use, alcohol consumption, prevalence data on non-communicable diseases (CVD, cancer, diabetes etc.) and deficiencies in certain micro-nutrients (e.g. iron, iodine, folate).

5. To summarize food and nutrition policies at European/national level, including food production policies (e.g. fruit and vegetables production); initiatives of the EC (e.g. “White Paper on A Strategy for Europe on Nutrition, Overweight and Obesity related health issues”, EU directive on food labelling/nutrient profiles), initiatives of the WHO/EURO (e.g. the forthcoming WHO/EURO Second Food and Nutrition Action Plan, the WHO/EURO Comparative analysis of nutrition policies in the WHO European Region).