Menzies Centre for Health Policy, University of Sydney School of Public Health, Sydney, NSW, Australia.
Food Policy Division, The George Institute for Global Health, The University of New South Wales, Sydney, NSW, Australia.
Int J Health Policy Manag. 2021 Dec 1;10(12):896-908. doi: 10.34172/ijhpm.2020.204.
Nutrition policies to improve the food environment frequently rely on voluntary business action for implementation, many have had mixed success. The aims of this study were to identify key food system drivers influencing the Australian packaged food sector and analyse how these might impact the willingness of food companies to voluntarily reduce salt in packaged foods.
Business methods formed the basis of this retrospective applied policy analysis of voluntary salt reduction for the period 2013-2016 where the focal policy was the Australian Food and Health Dialogue (2009-2015). The analytical framework included political-legal, economic, social, technological (PEST) external drivers of the food system, and Porter's Five Forces for the competitive drivers of the food system. Documentary data identifying food system drivers affecting the Australian packaged food sector (comprised of the food processing and supermarket industries) were identified through a comprehensive search of the grey and academic literatures.
The interplay between external and competitive food system drivers created an environment in which voluntary salt reduction was found to be an uneasy fit. A high cost of doing business, soft growth, intense competition, asymmetry of power in favour of supermarkets, and marginal consumer interest in less salty food were found likely to create commercial disincentives to invest in voluntary salt reduction above more pressing commercial imperatives. Analysis of food manufacturing industries highlighted the highly contextual nature of food system drivers. Opportunities for nutrition policy included: support for 'shared value' in economic discourse; and, leveraging investor, supermarket, and the largely unrealised bargaining power of consumers.
Business frameworks can provide meaningful insights for nutrition policy on how food system drivers can thwart policy goals. Our analysis highlighted areas to incentivise voluntary action and illustrated the importance of political-legal, economic and consumer strategies for salt reduction.
为改善食品环境而制定的营养政策往往依赖于企业的自愿行动来实施，但许多政策的效果喜忧参半。本研究的目的是确定影响澳大利亚包装食品行业的关键食品系统驱动因素，并分析这些因素可能如何影响食品公司自愿减少包装食品中盐含量的意愿。
本研究采用回顾性政策分析方法，对 2013 年至 2016 年期间自愿减少盐摄入量的政策进行了应用分析，其中重点政策是澳大利亚食品与健康对话（2009-2015 年）。分析框架包括食品系统的政治-法律、经济、社会和技术（PEST）外部驱动因素，以及食品系统竞争驱动因素的波特五力模型。通过对灰色文献和学术文献的全面搜索，确定了影响澳大利亚包装食品行业（包括食品加工和超市行业）的食品系统驱动因素的文件数据。
外部和竞争食品系统驱动因素的相互作用，使得自愿减少盐摄入量变得非常困难。高运营成本、温和增长、激烈竞争、超市的权力不对称以及消费者对低盐食品的兴趣不大，这些因素可能会导致企业不愿意投资于自愿减少盐摄入量，而更倾向于关注更紧迫的商业需求。对食品制造行业的分析突出了食品系统驱动因素的高度背景化特征。营养政策的机会包括：在经济话语中支持“共享价值”；利用投资者、超市以及消费者尚未充分发挥的议价能力。
商业框架可以为营养政策提供有意义的见解，了解食品系统驱动因素如何阻碍政策目标的实现。我们的分析强调了激励自愿行动的领域，并说明了政治-法律、经济和消费者战略对减少盐摄入量的重要性。
