Agency publishes consultation on programme of work to make healthier eating easier
Tuesday 27 March 2007
A consultation to explore ways of reducing the average amount of saturated fat in people's diets and help make healthier eating easier has been published today by the Food Standards Agency.
Gill Fine, Director of Nutrition and Dietary Health at the Food Standards Agency, said: 'Cardiovascular disease is the main cause of death in the UK and poor diet is thought to be responsible for a third of these deaths.
'Many leading food manufacturers and retailers have already taken action to provide healthier food choices for consumers. Over the past three years we have seen reductions in the levels of salt as well as lower fat ranges of products. We are keen to find out what more could be done to make it easier for consumers to take action to improve their diets.'
The Agency is seeking views on four areas over the next three months:
- making people more aware and improving understanding of healthy eating, particularly the effects of too much saturated fat on health
- encouraging manufacturers to increase availability of smaller portion sizes as an alternative to mainstream product sizes, as often smaller portions are restricted to supermarkets as part of a multi-pack and may come with a price premium
- helping to ensure healthier reduced saturated fat alternatives to everyday foods are more widely available, and encouraging consumers to choose these
- encouraging the food industry to look at what they're putting in their products and improving the recipe of everyday foods by reducing the levels of saturated fat
Gill Fine added: 'We want to build on the work that has already started and are keen to hear from a wide range of organisations; retailers, manufacturers, consumer groups, health professionals and the public.'
We will be having a series of meetings with interested parties during the consultation period to discuss ideas. Once the consultation period closes and comments have been received, the Agency will work with others to develop the programme further.
Notes to editors
High intakes of saturated fat raise the levels of cholesterol in the blood, which is a risk factor for cardiovascular disease – a disease that killed 216,000 people in the UK in 2004. It has been estimated that a reduction in average saturated fat people eat by 17% to the level recommended by health experts could avert approximately 3,500 deaths a year in the UK.
Data collated as part of the Nutrition Diet and Nutrition Survey shows that, on average, men consume 33 grams of saturated fat a day, and women 23 grams per day. This equates to average intakes by adults of saturated fat of 13.3% of food energy. Experts recommend that we should get no more than 11% of daily energy from saturated fat, which across the population means about a 17% reduction in current intakes.
The consultation will also explore ways to contribute to helping people balance the amount of calories they consume with the amount of energy they need, as part of a wider programme of work. The level of obesity in the UK has tripled in the past 20 years, and is still increasing. Rising obesity is a result of people consuming more calories in food and drink than they need.
The draft programme outlines examples of innovation already underway within the food industry to reformulate existing products or develop new products to improve their nutrient profile. Examples include:
- since 2003 Walkers has reduced saturated fat across almost all of its snack food range by 80%. This will remove over 20,000 tonnes of saturates from the British diet by the end of 2007. This has been achieved by replacing standard cooking oil with a high oleic sunflower oil, which contains only 10% saturates compared with 45% in standard cooking oil
- in January 2006 food manufacturer RHM launched a range of lower fat and calorie Mr Kipling cakes called 'Delightfuls' containing 10-30% less fat than standard cakes. The range is firmly established as an important part of the Mr Kipling range
- Tesco's Product Improvement Programme, which began in 2005 to improve the nutrition profile of its own-brand products, and has led to reduced fat in 125 products, saturated fat in 143 and sugar in 53 products in 2005-6
- Asda has developed a wide-reaching nutrition policy that sets specific parameters for fat, saturated fat, sugar and salt to which new products must comply. Asda has in place a programme of reformulation tied to the relaunch of its products, which aims to reduce the levels of fat, saturated fat, sugars and salt in some of its own-brand products
- Sainsbury's has developed its own in-house programme to improve product quality and health, which uses its multiple traffic light front of pack labelling scheme as a tool for the redevelopment of its products.
The draft programme has received a welcome from a number of health and consumer groups that are supporting the launch of this consultation.
This consultation forms part of a wider Government drive to improve the nation's health, which includes a range of strategies to help reduce the incidence of cardiovascular disease and obesity levels. Examples of the different strategies include salt-intake reduction measures to help reduce blood pressure and cardiovascular disease, work strands to reduce smoking and health department initiatives to halt the rise in obesity.
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