Portugal was one of the few European countries that did not have a national food programme, i.e., “a concerted and cross-sectional set of actions destined to ensure and encourage access and intake of a certain type of foods, having as a goal the improvement of the population’s nutritional status and health”.
PNPAS has five main goals:
1. To increase the knowledge on food intake of the Portuguese population, its determinants and consequences;
2. To change the availability of certain foods, namely in schools, workplace and public spaces;
3. To inform and empower for the purchase, preparation and storage of healthy food, especially in more disadvantaged groups;
4. To identify and promote cross-sectional actions which encourage the consumption of good nutritional quality foods in an articulated and integrated way with other sectors, namely agriculture, sport, environment, education, social security and local authorities;
5. To improve the qualification and conduct of the different professionals who, due to role, may influence nutritional knowledge, attitudes and behaviours.
PNPAS proposes a set of goals distributed in five major areas:
