Véronique Provencher (RD, PhD) is a Full Professor at the School of Nutrition at Université Laval and a researcher at the Centre Nutrition, santé et Société (NUTRISS) of the Institute of Nutrition and Functional Foods. Dr. Provencher is a registered dietitian and a member of the Ordre professionnel des diététistes du Québec. She earned MSc and PhD degrees at Université Laval before undertaking postdoctoral research in psychology at the University of Toronto. Since the beginning of her career, she has been awarded a number of research grants, published more than 95 peer-reviewed papers, and is renowned for her work in public health nutrition. Her innovative research program focuses on psychological and behavioral factors related to food intake and weight-related issues. She is also actively involved in the Observatoire de la qualité de l’offre alimentaire (Food Quality Observatory) as the Scientific Director where she studied issues related to the food environment. The main aim of her research is to support the development of new public health practices and policies that promote healthy eating in a sustainable way. She is also the lucky mother of two children and has to cope with food environments every day!
Established in December 2016 under the impetus of Université Laval’s Institute of Nutrition and Functional Foods (INAF) and many other partners, the Food Quality Observatory (Observatory) aims to monitor the evolution of the food supply, hence contributing to the collective effort of improving the quality and accessibility of food. The Observatory was born out of a need expressed by several partners (government, academic and private) to generate objective data on the quality of the food supply’s in Quebec and Canada. This supports two current policies implemented by the Quebec government, namely the Politique gouvernementale de prévention en santé (2017-2021) and the Politique bioalimentaire (2018-2025). Specifically, portraits of the nutritional quality of key food categories in the Quebec food supply, that combine both nutrition labelling information and food sales data, are conducted over time. So far, portraits for nine categories are currently available on the Observatory’s website (e.g., breakfast cereals, sliced breads, granola bars, yogurts and dairy desserts; see https://offrealimentaire.ca/en for details). With these generated data, it is possible to locate and track areas of improvement within these food categories in accordance with consumer purchases over time. In summary, this presentation will describe how data from the Food Quality Observatory, alongside other food composition data, will contribute to the INFORMAS Canada monitoring efforts to examine improvements to the nutritional quality of the Canadian food supply.