ABSTRACT
This chapter describes nutrition policy, nutritional labelling and consumer roles in twentieth-century Norway. Food scarcity and under nutrition characterized the country up to the end of the Second World War, and assuring food security and healthy nutrition for all were still on the political agenda well into the post-war period. The chapter focuses on simplified nutritional labelling, because there is an ongoing debate about this in Norway. Food shortage was common in Norway from the nineteenth century until the 1950s and this had consequences in terms of public policies. Although the industrialization of the Norwegian economy had begun the labour force was diminished by large-scale emigration. The Norwegian Nutrition Council was given an important role in defining and implementing a healthy national diet, and a major milestone in the development of Norwegian nutrition policy was the publication of a White Paper on food and nutrition policy in the mid-1970s.
