Ireland’s Food Dude Initiative has been recognised by the highest authorities in the fight against obesity with a top award, despite being shunned by UK health authorities a few years ago.

The European Ministerial Conference on Counteracting Obesity in Istanbul awarded the Food Dude Initiative, Ireland the World Health Organisation’s Counteracting Obesity Award for promoting fresh produce consumption. The initiative beat 201 other entries from 35 countries.

Representing the fruit trade and Irish government respectively, Laurence Swan, director of Fyffes and Michael Moloney, director of An Bord Bia traveled to Turkey with professor Fergus Lowe of Bangor University, who developed the Food Dudes.

The project is in its second year of a three-year run and is being rolled out to primary school children in Ireland. It is funded by the fresh produce industry in Ireland (30 per cent), the European Commision (50 per cent) and An Bord Bia (20 per cent). In addition the industry is funding the costs of the fruit and vegetables and their distribution throughout Ireland.

The objective is to change dietary eating habits through presenting primary-school children with fresh fruit and vegetables daily over a 16-day intervention period.

The children get rewards for at first tasting the fresh produce and then

from eating their daily portions. The project is backed up by videos featuring Food Dude hero characters and home-eating educational and recording packs that enable the dietary changes made to be carried into the home. The three ingredients - fresh produce, rewards, and hero character videos - have all been shown to be necessary to bring about the sustained change.

“It is gratifying the pioneering experimental work done in two schools in Dundalk - in 2003 on combating obesity has led to a WHO award in 2006. I sincerely hope that this award will heighten awareness of the importance of fruit and vegetables is all our diets, but especially in those of our nation’s children,” said Dr Swan.”

Swan, like many who have spent a lifetime in the fresh produce industry believe it is the only system that can bring about the changes needed to fend off the obesity epidemic.

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