Olivier Allais – Research Director and Scientific Coordinator of Oqali for INRAE, UMR PSAE (ex-ALISS) (testimonial from the dossier “Oqali: a food observatory to support public nutrition policy” -2021)
“As an economist and director of the unit that houses the Oqali at INRAE, I am both a user of the observatory’s data and its scientific co-director. I defend INRAE’s scientific and strategic position with our partners and the supervisory ministries. One important issue is lifting the anonymity of data on the composition of processed products for public data made available by the system and in Oqali studies. Opening up this data is a key issue for encouraging the reformulation of recipes and clarifying the efforts made by manufacturers in terms of food and health. This move towards greater transparency is shared by manufacturers who are helping to build a database of product characteristics. While this would free up Oqali’s time for research, we need to ensure that it fully meets Oqali’s missions, which is why we are actively monitoring its development.”
Testimonial from our thematic dossier
Thematic dossier
Oqali: a food observatory to support public nutrition policy
Described as a nutritional pathology by the World Health Organisation, obesity is a public health issue. Public policies have been tackling this issue through information and prevention strategies since the late 1990s. The need for knowledge and tools to share it has never been greater, and data on food and its transparency is a crucial issue. At the interface between science and public policy, INRAE and Anses have developed a food quality observatory called Oqali. Here’s a look at this tool for informing public policy on nutrition.
