In the March 30, 2013 edition of the Wall Street Journal, this article featured a preview of our UNCFRP team’s upcoming “report card” on the HWCF Evaluation.
In 2010, 16 food and drink makers made the joint pledge to shave one trillion calories from the products they sell in U.S. stores and vending machines by 2012, and 1.5 trillion calories by 2015, both compared with 2007 levels. The firms were all members of a newly formed group called the Healthy Weight Commitment Foundation—the culmination of several years of talks with each other and with the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation on how the industry could help shrink American waistlines.
Later this year, two reports are expected to shed light on how the food makers have done at meeting the 2012 goal. The firms’ foundation commissioned Georgetown Economic Services, a part of the Kelley Drye law firm, to evaluate its members’ progress. And the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, a Princeton, N.J.-based body focusing on health issues, has tapped researchers at the University of North Carolina Food Research Program to independently monitor the bottom-line goal and to dive deeper into the data—seeing whether, for instance, the food makers should get credit for a cut in Americans’ consumption, or whether Americans were making healthier eating choices across the board, not just in their purchases from firms involved in the pledge.
Our team is excited about our new framework and system for measuring food and beverage sales and purchases along with consumption, and look forward to impartially evaluating the HWCF pledge.
Read more here: http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424127887324685104578388773889122996.html
Related blog post: Numbers Guy – WSJ http://blogs.wsj.com/numbersguy/calorie-cutters-1227/