Promoting a healthy and lifestyle
Changing mentalities
We continue the path of promoting healthy eating and lifestyle, so we found alternatives to reach our schoolchildren, even when the pandemic kept them at home. And because we know how important it is to reduce sugars and salt in the diet, we are reducing the use of these ingredients in our own-brand products.
Missão Continente School Programme
The Missão Continente School Programme, created in 2016, aims to impact 1st cycle of Basic Education (CEB) students, teachers, parents, and the entire school community, raising awareness among young people about healthy diet and lifestyle and education for conscious and sustainable consumption. It provides content, educational activities, challenges (with prizes), educational play materials, and field visits throughout the school year.
The institutional partners of the Missão Continente School are the Directorate-General of Health (DGS), the CEIDSS - Centre for Study and Research in Social Dynamics and Health, the São João University Hospital Centre (CHUSJ), the Abel Salazar Biomedical Sciences Institute of the University of Porto and the Portuguese Football Federation (FPF), as well as the institutional support of the Directorate-General of Education (DGE).
2020-2021 edition
A different teaching method
The model used by the Missão Continente School had to be adjusted due to the pandemic context. Therefore, a video of a virtual visit to the Store, was developed, as well as a video of a virtual visit to the School (class), since in-person visits could not take place. For schools with conditions to have a live class, sessions were carried out by the Ambassadors via Teams..
2021-2022 edition
Stopping Childhood Obesity
To measure the action of the Programme on the children that participate in it, the Missão Continente School will evaluate, for the first time, the impact of this educational programme for healthy eating, in 35 schools of the 1st CEB, for four consecutive years (2021-2025). It is the first study of a nutrition and community health programme of this size in Portugal.
The scientific impact measurement study will accompany children from the 1st cycle of Basic Education (CEB) enrolled in the programme. It will address the general theme "Mediterranean Diet - a healthy, sustainable and conscious choice", where a specific plan with integrated contents, adjusted to the age of the children, will be applied each year. All classes enrolled in the Programme will address four main themes over the four years of monitoring.
This is one of the first studies involving a nutrition and community health programme with a national dimension that will include 40 classes from 35 1st CEB schools, representing the 18 Districts of mainland Portugal, including two from Madeira and the Azores.
This study also aims to counter the likely impact of the pandemic by COVID-19 on the progress of childhood obesity in Portugal, where 1 in 3 children is overweight
With the Mission to reach out to everyone
Starting this school year, the Missão Continente School extends its scope by integrating new generations - pre-school and the 2nd cycle of Basic Education. By 2025, it intends to expand its reach even further to other generations.
The Missão Continente School also has three national personalities who stand out in the areas of food, sports, and entertainment as official ambassadors: the presenter Francisco Garcia, as EMC ambassador of the pre-school programme; the presenter and food writer Filipa Gomes, as the ambassador of the 1st cycle of Basic Education, and the football player of the Women's National Team, Jéssica Silva, as the ambassador of the 2nd cycle of Basic Education.
655
participating schools
70.704
students enrolled
5.110
teachers involved
Reduction of sugar and salt in own brand products
We cut 1,185 tonnes of sugar and salt in our products
Continente has been developing nutritional optimisation plans in over 350 own brand products, aiming to reduce sugar, salt, and fats, thus contributing to everyone's health.
The reductions are focused on own brand products, especially yoghurts, cereals, biscuits, soft drinks, crisps, tomato pulp and take-away soups, thus contributing to improve the health and lifestyle of the Portuguese. Among other examples, the canned legumes guarantee low salt content, and the tomato pulp does not have any added salt. The brand has also eliminated palm oil from 80 of its products.
- -800 tonnes reduction in sugars
- -120 tonnes reduction in salt
- -385 tonnes reduction of saturated fats
By the end of 2022, we estimate a reduction of salt in Continente soups of around 4 tonnes, a 12% reduction of salt content in crisps and snacks and a 10% reduction of sugar content in yoghurts and chocolate milk.
For Mayumi Delgado, head of Continente's Nutrition team, "these are important reductions that Continente makes in favour of the Portuguese people's health, helping to prevent obesity and associated diseases, such as cardiovascular diseases, type 2 diabetes, and many others. Unfortunately, two out of three Portuguese are overweight or obese, and the problem has worsened with the pandemic. In this sense, Continente's nutrition team has accelerated nutritional optimisation to help reverse this situation".
At the same time, Continente is investing in the Nutrition Traffic Light on the front of the packaging so that the consumer has access to simplified information about the products, mainly about the nutrients that, in excess, can be a severe problem for health. The traffic light shows the concentration of sugar, salt, fat, and saturated fat (green - low, yellow - moderate and red - high). An essential tip for balanced choices is to opt more often for green or yellow and less for 'red lights'.
