Summary of Proceedings

The Committee Co-Chairs welcomed participants to the Third Virtual NSAC meeting and introduced the topic of the meeting, “Monitoring to discern and understand new and emerging trends impacting the nutritional health of Canadians”. Approval of the meeting agenda was sought, which had two objectives:

Objectives:

1. Review and approve the Record of Proceedings from the second meeting
2. Discuss and provide advice on questions asked related to Health Canada’s presentation on Monitoring to discern and understand new and emerging trends impacting the nutritional health of Canadians

The Executive Secretary reminded members of Health Canada’s transparency approach for the Committee and the importance of declaring Members’ affiliations and interests before each meeting to help meet its goal of generating the best independent advice. There were no changes to members’ affiliations and interests.

• introduced the theme guiding the discussion: Monitoring to discern and understand new and emerging trends impacting the nutritional health of Canadians
• provided context about the importance of monitoring in supporting achievement of Health Canada’s nutrition mandate, including by identifying new and emerging issues;
• using a framework based on a socio-ecological approach, illustrated the potential influence of the COVID-19 pandemic on systems, household and individual determinants of healthy eating and nutritional health outcomes, and acknowledged the importance of taking diversity and equity into consideration to understand differential impact across sub-populations;
• provided an overview of the types of data and data sources used by Health Canada in food and nutrition monitoring.

Recognizing the pandemic has accelerated changes across many factors in the food and nutrition environment, and the need to identify changes associated with a disruptor such as the COVID-19 pandemic to help inform responses, Health Canada solicited Members’ advice on what to monitor to understand the impact of “disruptors” in the shorter and longer term.

Meeting participants were divided into two groups and were asked to respond to the following question:

In the context of our current disruptor, the COVID-19 pandemic, what should be monitored to signal important changes in the food and nutrition context that impact the nutritional health of all Canadians?

One group focused on societal level factors, while the other group focused on household and individual factors. Both groups were asked to include equity, diversity and inclusion in their considerations.

The forward agenda for the next few meetings was presented as an evergreen document, thus allowing the Committee to be flexible and to adapt its work based on Health Canada’s evolving needs. Upcoming meetings will continue to explore the “monitoring” theme to understand the transient and long-term impact of disruptors such as the COVID-19 pandemic.

The Co-Chairs thanked Members for their active participation.