Friday, 04 April 2025
The Food Reformulation Task Force annual report for 2024 highlights key achievements throughout the year in implementing A Roadmap for Food Product Reformulation in Ireland.
In the third year of implementation of the Roadmap, the task force executed a comprehensive plan to drive and monitor reformulation progress and communicate transparently and regularly.
In 2024, the task force engaged broadly with stakeholders through a variety of communication channels such as meetings with groups of food manufacturers and retailers, in-person events, technical publications, social media campaigns, regular newsletter updates and one-to-one engagement. The task force collaborated with State bodies as well as healthcare professional representative groups and research bodies and institutions to extend its reach and communicate the Irish food reformulation targets to a wide range of stakeholders.
Throughout the year, the task force published eight reports detailing monitoring results, reformulation targets and research findings. The task force commissioned three pieces of research into dietary intakes, provision of meals in the foodservice sector and the availability of commercial data for reformulation monitoring in Ireland. The task force also contributed to research on food composition monitoring, interventions to improve the healthfulness of the food environment and public perceptions of food reformulation.
Research, monitoring and stakeholder engagement activities demonstrate there is progress and commitment to reformulation in Ireland. However, population dietary intakes of salt, free sugar and saturated fat remain above health based upper thresholds and so more work needs to be done.
