BIA-Obesity - Business Impact Assessment on Obesity and Population Level Nutrition

This study is conducted by researchers within Sciensano (Brussels) and the ‘Institut national de la recherche agronomique’ (INRA — Paris). It is part of a larger European project on Science and Technology in Childhood Obesity Prevention (STOP) led by Imperial College London. 

The project forms a part of INFORMAS (International Network for Food and Obesity/NCDs Research, Monitoring and Action Support), a global network of public-interest organisations and researchers that seeks to monitor and benchmark public and private sector actions to create healthy food environments and reduce obesity and non-communicable diseases (NCDs) globally. INFORMAS is coordinated by the University of Auckland.

The BIA-Obesity consists of a range of indicators across six action domains (corporate nutrition strategy, product formulation, product labelling, product and brand promotion, product accessibility, relationships with other organisations). Indicators are sector-specific and are tailored for the purposes of this project to the European context.

These methods were adapted from the Access to Nutrition Index (ATNI) that benchmarks the nutrition-related commitments, performance and disclosure practices of global food and beverage manufacturers.

This process results in the development of scorecards for each company to enable comparison at a sector level both nationally and internationally. The project clearly highlights areas in which companies are demonstrating leadership in the prevention of obesity, and indicates specific areas for improvement at a company, sector and industry level.

The intention is to repeat this process on a regular basis and thus to track progress over time. The findings will be communicated broadly as part of efforts to increase awareness and accountability for action.