Study to Generate Evidence on Food Additives and Bouillon Cubes to Inform Public Health Guidance, Standards and Regulatory Frameworks
UNICEF has now issued Request for Proposals in order to select a service provider to carry out the Study to Generate Evidence on Food Additives and Bouillon Cubes to Inform Public Health Guidance, Standards and Regulatory Frameworks.
Overall Goal: To generate evidence to inform public health guidance, strengthen regulatory standards, and support healthier product reformulation for bouillon cubes, with a particular focus on improving nutrition and safeguarding the health of pregnant women, infants and young children.
Objective 1: To conduct evidence synthesis including a systematic review on the effects of food additives on health of pregnant women, infants and young children. Specific
Objective 2: To undertake a bouillon cubes-specific evidence synthesis assessing product formulations, food additive use, nutrient profiles, dietary consumption patterns, safety considerations and regulatory frameworks, particularly in relation to long-term consumption among pregnant women, infants and young children. The review aims to generate evidence to support strengthened public health guidance, regulatory standards, product reformulation strategies and safety considerations for these products. Findings from the reviews will inform potential revision and strengthening of existing standards and regulatory frameworks for bouillon cubes. The evidence synthesis will build on findings emerging from an ongoing systematic review examining the effects of food additives on child health.
This tender will be run through the UNICEF e-submissions system. By clicking on the blue ‘Express Interest’ button in the UNGM tender notice, the full UNICEF e-submission system instructions to bidders document (including instructions on how to access the tender documents and submit an Offer) will be automatically emailed to the ‘contact persons’ included in your UNGM registration. Alternatively, the full UNICEF e-submission system instructions to bidders document is publicly available on the UNICEF supply internet pages here: https://www.unicef.org/supply/index_procurement_policies.html . In the tender management site, if you navigate to the documents tab and opt in to confirm your intention to submit a Bid – you will then see the mandatory placeholders for documents that must be attached prior to submitting your Offer (you will also see if there are any mandatory questionnaires to complete). As such, you are recommended to `opt in` well before the submission deadline so you are clear exactly what documents are required to be uploaded prior to completing your submission. Please note that in order to access the tender documentation through UNICEF’s e-submissions system, vendors must: (i) be registered with UNICEF in UNGM as a company/NGO; (ii) have successfully completed all mandatory information currently required by UNGM when registering. Please ensure that any files submitted as part of your Bid are not corrupt or damaged in any way. Please exercise particular caution when using compressed files. Any corrupt or damaged files may lead to your Bid being invalidated. All vendors are strongly recommended to regularly log in to the UNICEF e-submissions system to check for any deadline extensions, new clarifications, new correspondence or updated tender documents relating to this tender.
Sustainable Procurement practices integrate requirements, specifications, and criteria that are compatible and in favour of the protection of the environment, the social progress and in support of economic development. These practices seek resource efficiency, improve the quality of products and services, and ultimately optimize costs (HLCM Procurement Network). Sustainable Procurement is one of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) (goals 12 and 12.7), and it also contributes to the achievement of all SDGs. This procurement opportunity is considered sustainable as it incorporates at least three sustainability considerations, in accordance with the HLCM Procurement Network's Sustainable Procurement Working Group - Sustainability Indicators Framework. To learn more about which considerations are included in this procurement opportunity, please see below for a specific description. For more information, contact the procurement official or author of this procurement opportunity.
The tender contains sustainability considerations for preventing or minimizing damage associated with climate change.
Examples:
Energy efficiency, greenhouse gas reporting and emission offsetting.
The tender contains sustainability considerations related to human rights, fundamental principles and rights at work, occupational health and safety, fairly traded goods, targeted employment of people with disabilities, etc.
The tender contains sustainability considerations regarding local MSMEs, local communities or disadvantaged groups.
Examples:
Reserved labour opportunities for local communities, use of local materials, reserved procurements for local companies
The tender incorporates contract conditions/ KPIs that stipulate the verification of suppliers' environmental and social claims through “spot checks” and audit provisions.
The tender contains sustainability considerations promoting vendors' participation to the UN Global Compact.