Results at a Glance: Evaluation of the Office of Nutrition Policy and Promotion

Program overview

Health Canada works collaboratively with federal partners, provinces, territories and a range of other stakeholders to develop and implement evidence-based policy that defines healthy eating and promotes environments that support Canadians in making healthy food choices.

The Office of Nutrition Policy and Promotion (ONPP) is part of Health Canada's Health Products and Food Branch (HPFB) and is mandated to help Canadians maintain and improve their nutritional health by:

• providing public health nutrition leadership
• anticipating and responding to public health nutrition issues
• developing, promoting, and implementing evidence-based policies, initiatives and standards
• providing timely and authoritative nutrition information to support and influence decisions
• generating and disseminating nutrition knowledge.

Evaluation approach

The purpose of the evaluation was to provide guidance and information to Health Canada by focusing on the relevance, performance, and efficiency of ONPP. The evaluation covered activities from 2016-17 to 2021-22 and used multiple data collection methods, including the following:

• Document and file review;
• Data analysis; and
• Key informant interviews.

The following questions guided the evaluation:

Continued Need: What are the current and emerging needs related to nutrition and healthy eating?

Effectiveness: How successful has ONPP been in achieving its outcomes? Does ONPP deliver its mandate effectively to support current and emerging healthy eating issues?

Efficiency and Economy: Are resources used efficiently and effectively?

What the evaluation found

Awareness and access to ONPP's nutrition and healthy eating products, namely Canada's food guide, is widespread among Canadians. Despite this, many Canadians are not adopting healthy eating habits – numerous factors in the food environment, including food accessibility and the influence of social media affect Canadians' healthy eating decision.

Many partners and stakeholders work to help Canadians eat healthy. Health Canada and ONPP's mandate is well recognized, and they are seen as a trusted source. Partners and stakeholders rely on ONPP's nutrition policies and resources in their day-to-day work, referencing the 2019 Canada's food guide on their websites, and integrating it into their respective policies, programs, and initiatives. However, collaboration with partners and stakeholders has not been consistent over the years, and more could be done to work with those groups in the development of key resources.

Internally, there is some confusion within HC when it comes to ONPP's role versus that of the Food Directorate within HPFB. In terms of performance measurement, ONPP's work is well represented within the Food and Nutrition Program's Performance Information Profile but a few gaps exist in terms of outcome measurement and articulation of external factors affecting achievement of outcomes.

Recommendations

Recommendation 1: Explore ways to address engagement issues.

Recommendation 2: Ensure that upcoming activities are reflective of the evolving food environment (e.g., COVID-19 related impacts on nutrition and healthy eating, inflation), and are undertaken with responsible groups (i.e., governance bodies and agreements), when appropriate.

Recommendation 3: Improve performance measurement by:

• reassessing the current medium-term outcomes' related indicators; and
• integrating external factors and barriers that affect achievement of outcomes and impact of activities.