Professor monique Raats

Biography

She previously worked at the Institute of Food Research, Health Education Authority and University of Oxford. Her expertise is in the area of public health and behavioural nutrition research, gained on a variety of projects. Her research is wide ranging both in terms of topics covered (e.g. food choice, policy development, food safety) and methodologies used (e.g. qualitative, quantitative, stakeholder consultation). She has also been involved in the evaluation of health promotion programmes and developing tools for use in nutrition education.

Research Interest

In 1997 I joined the Health Education Authority to provide technical and research support to a feasibility project on the development a national point of purchase healthy eating labelling scheme. Ten years later I returned to these national level policy discussions when my team and I were invited to provide research methodological advice to the market research agency and expert group tasked with overseeing the evaluation of signpost nutrition labelling schemes, commissioned by the Food Standards Agency. This work was complemented with a leadership role in the FLABEL consortium that carried out further EU-level research. Our work on framing the differences between labels in terms of directiveness was central to the design of all the FLABEL studies. Currently we are developing the UK’s first pilot randomised control trial to enhance the use of front of pack nutrition labelling. I was also a member of the International Scientific Committee for the Choices programme, a world-wide initiative that is introducing a simple front-of-pack stamp on food products that have passed an evaluation against a set of qualifying criteria based on international dietary guidelines.