Opportunities for increasing consumption of local fruits and vegetables in Slovenian population

Recent studies highlighted very low consumption of fruits and vegetables in Slovenia. Low self-sufficiency rates (<50%) are observed for fruits and vegetables in Slovenia. Unbalanced diet is linked with health challenges. Increased consumption of fruits and vegetables improves energy balance (reducing risks for overweigh/obesity) and is linked with other health benefits. There is strong evidence for protection against cardiovascular disease, and good evidence for decreased risk of various cancers. Fruits and vegetables are also an important dietary source of many essential nutrients (including vitamins/minerals) and other important dietary substances, such as dietary fibre, which intake is insufficient in 90% Slovenian adults. Consumers are decision-makers on point-of-purchase, and therefore a key factor for improving dietary habits in the population. While governmental activities are resulting in clear increasing trend of consumers’ preference for locally produced foods, food operators (farmers, food manufacturers and retailers) have very limited capability for explaining other benefits of their products. For example, the use of health claims on foods is very limited. To assure that claims are not misleading consumers, claims need to be substantiated with strong scientific evidence - randomised human intervention trials, and approved by the European Commission. Due to strict health claims requirements resulted vast majority (75%) of authorised health claims is referring to essential nutrients (mostly vitamins and minerals), while majority of health claim applications for whole-foods were rejected due to lack of evidence. Furthermore, even though consumption of fruits and vegetables is indisputably supporting human health, there are currently no authorised health claim for any of fresh fruit or vegetable (only one claim for kiwi fruit is in the authorisation stage). This means that food operators across the EU have no legal option, to inform consumers that consumption of fruits and vegetables is healthy. The only option available is the use of nutrition claims (for example: about the content of vitamin), and referring health claims to such essential nutrients, if the composition of food is well established. However, in the national food composition database data is missing/incomplete for several locally produced fruits and vegetables. Therefore, local fruits and vegetables are very rarely marketed with any claims, and food operators are relying to the health literacy and awareness in the population, even though this area is very poorly understood/investigated. The overall hypothesis of this 3-year applied research project’s is that nutrition and health benefits of fruits and vegetables can be used as important drivers for promotion and consumption of locally produced foods. Applying a highly multidisciplinary approach, we will (O1) use nationally-representative food consumption data to identify most commonly consumed fruit and vegetables; (O2) investigate nutritional composition and benefits of most consumed fruit and vegetables, including foods from national scheme ""Selected quality"".; (O3) investigate health benefits of selected locally produced fruit and vegetables, with focus on gastro-intestinal health; (O4) Investigate consumer’s behaviour and preferences on fruits and vegetables, focusing on consumer trust and identification of obstacles and opportunities of increasing consumption of local foods; (O5) use project results to support farmers and food producers for more efficient promotion of local fruits and vegetables; (O6) support policymakers with evidence needed to increase local production and consumption of fruits and vegetables. Project goals are harmonised with key strategic documents; relevance of project for policy makers is assured also by collaboration with Ministry for agriculture, forestry and food.