Nutrition

Indroduction

One of FAO’s main objectives is to guarantee that all people have access at all times to the food needed to lead healthy and active lives. FAO is interested in the food system as a whole, recognizing that nutritional wellbeing constitutes a condition previous to sustainable development. FAO’s activities in food and nutrition in Latin America and the Caribbean may be grouped in the following areas: household food security; food and nutritional education; food and nutritional surveillance; standardization and food control, and food composition.

The projects and programmes to improve the situation of household food security are an integral part of the strategies proposed by the International Conference on Nutrition (Rome, 1992) and the World Food Summit (Rome, 1996). The strategy of these projects and programmes is based upon participative activities, at small scale, combining various disciplines: for example, productive activities such as family gardens are combined with food and nutritional education activities. Likewise, support is given in different countries of the Region to the integration of food and nutritional education and school gardens, in the curricula of primary schools under a pedagogical point of view.

Per country nutritional profiles are being developed as a contribution to food and nutritional surveillance serving as a guideline to the nutritional situation in the different countries of the region. The profiles form part of a more complex system to survey and analyze the situation of food insecurity: the Food Insecurity and Vulnerability Information and Mapping System (FIVIMS). The purpose of this Information System is to detect the areas and populations which are more exposed to food insecurity and the causes of the problem in order to improve the food security programmes and projects. Under this context, the Technical Cooperation Network on Food and Nutrition Surveillance Systems (SISVAN Network) sponsored by the FAO Regional Office, coordinates the surveillance activities and tries to link them with the national policies and plans for nutrition and food security.

The preparation of rules, codes of practice and international guidelines on food safety and quality, is performed by the Codex Alimentarius Commission, with the purpose of giving consumer protection and foster equitable practices in the international food trade.

In order to plan a balanced diet it is essential to have a knowledge of food composition. FAO, in collaboration with the Latin American Network of Food Data Systems (LATINFOODS) promotes the elaboration of national and regional food composition tables.