Plan d'action national de la réduction de la consommation du sel, du sucre et des graisses (saturées et trans) 2017-2021

Objectives

Reduce consumption of salt, sugar, saturated fats and trans fats in Morocco through a comprehensive food-environment strategy that combines public awareness, healthier institutional food settings, voluntary reformulation, nutritional labelling, advertising controls, research and monitoring.[1][2][3][4]The strategy seeks both to improve the nutritional quality of foods and prepared meals and to enable consumers to make healthier, balanced dietary choices.[5][6]

• Raise awareness among the general population, with particular attention to children, adolescents, families, workers, food professionals and catering personnel, about the health effects of excessive salt, sugar and fat consumption.[1][5][7]
• Improve school and university food environments by restricting foods high in salt, sugar and fats and by banning vending machines that sell such products.[8][3]
• Engage food manufacturers, professional caterers and collective-catering establishments in voluntary commitments and agreements to reduce salt, sugar and fat content in foods and meals.[6]
• Establish a health label for products meeting maximum nutritional-content standards and reinforce the regulatory framework for nutritional labelling.[6][8][9]
• Restrict advertising and promotion of foods and drinks high in salt, sugar and fats to children under 16 years, including through digital platforms.[10][9]
• Establish a national alliance, institutionalised through an interministerial instrument, to coordinate action on salt, sugar and fat reduction.[3]
• Strengthen the evidence base by developing researcher networks, assessing the population’s nutritional profile, updating Morocco’s food-composition table every two years and transferring healthy-food research to agri-food stakeholders.[4]
• Monitor implementation and population dietary patterns, including processed-food composition, nutritional labelling and consumption of salt, sugar and fats.[11][12]

Implementation

Implementation combines communication, education, voluntary and regulatory measures, cross-sector partnerships, professional training, research and activity-based monitoring.[1][6][9][11]The Ministry of Health leads or coordinates activities with education, higher-education, agriculture, communication, labour, food-safety, research, media, civil-society and food-sector partners.[1][2][4]Activities in the implementation matrices are generally scheduled from 2017 to 2021.[2][3]

• Deliver public communication through media campaigns, television and radio programmes, press dossiers, social media, websites, seminars, workshops, awareness days and information materials.[1][5][7][2]
• Develop and distribute teaching and communication resources for families, pre-schools, schools, universities, workplaces, catering managers and food-industry actors.[5][7]
• Mobilise journalists, media organisations, universities, research institutes and non-governmental organisations through healthy-eating networks, awareness meetings and dissemination of scientific and public information.[2][9]
• Develop a reference framework for voluntary nutritional-improvement charters, secure manufacturer commitments and negotiate collective agreements with catering establishments for lower-salt, lower-sugar and lower-fat meals.[6]
• Create the health-label scheme through technical specifications, sector-specific eligibility criteria, label registration, a multidisciplinary award jury and technical assessment of applications.[6][8]
• Support educational institutions to adopt internal rules restricting foods high in salt, sugar and fats, including rules prohibiting relevant vending machines.[8]
• Identify products subject to advertising restrictions, develop associated regulations and equip food-control officers to implement the measures.[10][9]
• Identify members of the national alliance across Morocco’s regions and prepare and implement annual action plans.[3][10]
• Build public, private, civil-society, academic and international cooperation through partnership agreements, collaborative projects, awareness activities and research.[9]
• Train health professionals through training-of-trainers workshops and develop guidance on healthy, balanced diets.[9]
• Conduct research, update food-composition data, transfer findings to the agri-food sector and use analytical controls of processed foods alongside nutritional-labelling data collection.[4][11]
• Monitor delivery through indicators covering media outreach, materials distributed, establishments sensitised, industry and catering commitments, labelled products, school rules, advertising controls, partnerships and professionals trained.[1][2][6][10][9]
• Maintain a monitoring dashboard, produce activity-indicator reports and hold regular progress-review meetings; assess population knowledge, attitudes, practices and intake through periodic studies.[11][12]
• Measure voluntary industry commitments through salt, sugar and fat levels in processed foods and compliance with nutritional-labelling requirements.[11][12]
• Note that the material does not specify budgets, financing sources, cost estimates, funding gaps, a detailed evaluation methodology, reporting cycle or wider accountability arrangements beyond listed indicators and responsibilities.[1][2][3][4][11]

Monitoring & Evaluation

Monitoring combines implementation tracking, food-environment measures, research outputs and periodic assessment of dietary practices. The framework uses activity and output indicators across communication, education, industry engagement, labelling, advertising, institutional food settings, research and intersectoral coordination.[1][2][3][4][11]

• Monitor public communication through the number of media campaigns, participating media outlets, disseminated messages, journalists and media organisations engaged in healthy-eating networks, press dossiers produced, and related press articles published.[1][2]
• Track education and awareness activities through the number of teaching and communication materials produced or distributed, educational establishments sensitised, awareness days organised, workplace documents and displays provided, and people reached in each structure.[5][7]
• Assess engagement by food manufacturers, professional associations, caterers and collective-catering businesses through the number of organisations sensitised, publication of a reference framework, voluntary charters drafted and signed, and collective agreements concluded.[7][6]
• Measure nutritional reformulation in prepared meals through percentage reductions in salt, sugar or fat content, and assess voluntary agri-food commitments through analytical controls of processed products.[6][11][12]
• Monitor food-labelling measures through establishment of the health label, the number of labelled processed foods, the number of industries receiving the label by sector, implementation of nutritional-labelling regulations, and updated labelling data.[6][8][10][11]
• Track healthier education settings through the number of schools and universities adopting internal rules on foods high in salt, sugar and fats, including the number banning relevant vending machines.[8][3]
• Monitor the national alliance through identification and institutionalisation of its members, as well as preparation and implementation of annual action plans.[3][10]
• Assess advertising controls through identification of products subject to restrictions, establishment of the regulatory framework, and the number of related promotional proceedings.[10][9]
• Record partnership and capacity-building outputs through the number of collaboration projects, intersectoral and international partnerships, cooperation services contacted, and health professionals trained.[9]
• Use a monitoring dashboard, activity-indicator reports and regular progress-review meetings to oversee implementation.[11]
• Measure research and population-level outputs through scientific publications on nutritional profiles, biennial publication of the Moroccan food-composition table, knowledge-transfer reports, knowledge, attitudes and practices studies, and evaluation studies of population intake of salt, sugar and fats.[4][11][12]

Implementation responsibilities are assigned principally to the Ministry of Health, alongside food-safety, education, communication, agriculture, research, civil-society and food-sector partners.[1][2][9][4]Activities are scheduled across 2017 to 2021, although one earlier implementation matrix includes a 2021 column without a reported activity for the listed action.[1][5][7][2][6][8][3][10][9]

The available material does not specify a comprehensive evaluation methodology, reporting frequency, independent review process, surveillance architecture, data-quality arrangements, consequences for non-performance, or other formal accountability mechanism beyond assigned responsibilities, dashboards, meetings and the listed indicators.[1][5][7][2][6][8][3][10][9][11]

Costing & Financing

No costing or financing framework is provided for the programme measures on awareness, reformulation, food labelling, advertising restrictions, school and university food environments, partnerships, professional training, research, monitoring or evaluation.[1][2][3][4][11]

• Specify no budget allocations, expenditure estimates, unit costs, procurement costs or financial targets for communication, educational materials, workshops, media activities or workplace outreach.[1][5][7]
• Specify no funding sources, resource-mobilisation arrangements, industry contributions or financial commitments for voluntary reformulation charters, collective catering agreements, nutritional labelling or school food-environment measures.[6][8]
• Specify no cost estimates or allocations for establishing the national alliance, developing advertising controls, building partnerships, or training health professionals.[3][10][9]
• Specify no financing for research groups, food-composition table updates, laboratory analysis of processed foods, consumer and producer studies, dashboards, reports or progress-review meetings.[4][11][12]
• Identify no funding gaps, donor support, domestic financing mechanism, economic assumptions, affordability analysis or cost-effectiveness assessment.[1][2][3][4]

Consequently, the source does not permit assessment of the resources required, the distribution of financial responsibility among implementing institutions, or whether planned activities are fully funded.[1][5][7][2][6][8][3][10][9][4][11][12]