The Nordic Keyhole healthy food scheme, which the Nordic Council of Ministers has extended to all the Nordic countries in recent years, can perhaps be exported to the Russian supermarkets too.

The final statement from the recent Northern Dimension Parliamentary Forum calls for increased use of precisely this type of labelling and also mentions the fight against trans fats, which Denmark and Iceland in particular have taken up.

The Northern Dimension partnership is a co-operation between the governments of Russia, Iceland, Norway and the EU Commission. A number of stakeholders from the Nordic Region, the Baltic States, the Barents Region and the Arctic also participate in the parliamentary forum, which follows and supports the governments' co-operation.

Public Health and Social Well-being is one of the four areas of co-operation in the partnership.

"To make it easier for people to live healthily, we must also make it easier for people to choose healthily", said the Icelandic politician Siv Fridleifsdottir, Chair of the Nordic Council's Welfare Committee at the conference, which was held in Tromsø from 22-23 February.

The Keyhole scheme can thus follow under the wings of the Nordic Ecolabel on the way out into the world. The new vision for the well-known ecolabel, which the Nordic ministers for the environment have just adopted, sets out to have the Nordic Ecolabel brand the Nordic countries as an environmentally-conscious region abroad.

Healthy food, not least in the wake of the New Nordic Food wave, is perhaps also on the way to become a Nordic brand, a trend that the Keyhole scheme can help to support.

Read the full statement from the conference.

Michael Funch
Phone +45 33960332
Email mifu@norden.org