Qatar

National Clinical Guideline: The Management of Obesity in Adults

The purpose of this guideline is to define the appropriate diagnosis and management of obesity in adults. The objective is to guide the appropriate investigation, prescribing and referral of patients presenting to provider organisations in Qatar. It is intended that the guideline will be used primarily by healthcare professionals in primary care and outpatient settings.

National Clinical Guideline: The Management of Obesity in Children

The purpose of this guideline is to define the appropriate prevention, diagnosis and management of obesity in children. The objective is to guide the appropriate prevention, investigation, treatment and referral of patients presenting to provider organisations in Qatar. It is intended that the guideline will be used primarily by healthcare professionals in primary, secondary and tertiary levels of care.

National Health Strategy 2018-2022

Aims to create a mentally and physically healthy population.

Qatar Excise Tax - soft & energy drink

Carbonated drinks (non-flavoured aerated water excluded) 50% tax rateEnergy drinks 100% tax rate

Food and Beverage Guidelines for Healthcare Facilities

Restrictions on foods sold in café's and vending machines in healthcare facilities

Qatar Public Health Strategy 2017-2022

The Qatar Public Health Strategy will operate under the overarching National Health Strategy 2017-2022, one of eight sector strategies that make up the National Development Strategy 2017-2022 for Qatar. The purpose of the Qatar‘s first Public Health Strategy is to further develop an integrated and comprehensive system that can effectively address current and future public health challenges.

Qatar Dietary Guidelines

Your Health First - Sahtak Awalan

A multi-media, multi-generational, bilingual health education campaign to improve the populations health and reduce prevalence of obesity.

Active Qatar Campaign

The campaign includes a series of programmes aimed at making sport activities and healthy food habits an integral part of daily lifestyles in order to help reduce obesity and the problems associated with being overweight in Qatar. It also includes specially targeted efforts for priority groups that are particularly vulnerable to inactivity-related diseases, such as people with disabilities, women, the elderly, and people with clinical conditions.

Gulf Technical Regulation: Labeling of prepackaged food stuffs

Gulf Cooperation Council countries namely adopted the standards GSO (09/2013) Amd 2016 and GSO (150- 2/2013) for labeling of pre-packaged foods and shelf life. According to this GCC-wide standard, prepackaged food product labels should be in Arabic or include an Arabic language translation of the label. Producers and retailers are also mandated to provide a list of the nutrient content of pre-packaged food products, even in the absence of a nutrition or health claim.

Responsible Food and Beverage Marketing to Children Pledge

The Responsible Food and Beverage Marketing to Children Pledge, initially adopted in the GCC in 2010, is a voluntary commitment by the signatory companies to conduct responsible food and beverage marketing to children. The pledge informs and benchmarks how food and beverage products are marketed in a responsible way to children under the age of 12 in the region. In 2016 the pledge was enhanced by applying a set of nutrition criteria to define ‘better for you options’ . The pledge was endorsed by the Advertising Business Group in 2018.

Mandatory standard for food in schools

The Department of the Ministry of Education and Higher Education has banned unhealthy food sold in school canteens, including products containing high amounts of fat, sugar and salt.