The naming and shaming of children's products by Jamie Oliver in his TV show 'School dinners', as well as by lobby groups such as Consensus of Action on Salt and Health (CASH) and the Food Standards Agency (FSA) has meant more mums are checking on-pack labels to find out what their children are eating.
While such undesirable exposure is persuading manufacturers to ensure their products can withstand scrutiny, some companies feel they have been unfairly targeted.
Oriental Express Frozen Foods (OEFF), for example, says it has managed to cut salt levels by 50% in products such as its Scooby-Doo chicken nuggets -- a range highlighted in a recent CASH salt survey. The company says it moved to reduced salt and sugar baked beans in all Scooby-Doo meals back in July 2004 and it will launch low sodium chicken nuggets across all formats in July 2005.
The company has also taken health concerns onboard when developing its latest Scooby-Doo Sporty Meals range. Aimed at 4-9 year-olds, the meals of Chicken & pasta bake, Sausage & tomato pasta, Tuna & sweetcorn pasta, and Football & laces (spaghetti and meatballs) are free of artificial flavourings, preservatives and colourings and meet current recommendations for fat and salt content.
The salt level of these meals is as low as 0.7g for a 275g pack -- less than a third of children's recommended daily intake.On-pack labels also give the salt content rather than poorly-understood sodium values.
Fat and sugar are the next targets for the FSA, and OEFF is already ahead of these campaigns. Michaela Blunden, marketing director, explains: "Back in 2004 a Scooby-Doo chicken nugget meal contained 4g of fat, which is within the FSA guidelines, but the company decided to cut the fat content going forward."
Unlike salt, however, when it comes to sign-posting, fat reduction can be an issue for mums, says Blunden: "Mums are often concerned that by choosing a reduced-fat product they could compromise a child's growth." As a result "lower in fat" is something the company chose not to flag up on packs.
Other selling attributes are the use of 100% chicken breast rather than shaped or reformed meat, and the replacement of reconstituted potato flakes with mashed potato made on site. The use of higher quality ingredients has been achieved with no added costs to the consumer and the pasta meals retail at 99p.
The Scooby-Doo frozen meal range has grown to a £5.6m brand (TNS 52 w/e Jan 2, 2005) since its launch in January 2004 and has close to a 50% share of the children's frozen ready meal market (TNS 52 w/e Oct 10, 2004).
The company is also launching a range of individually wrapped child-friendly Scooby-Doo steamed vegetables. These include peas, sweetcorn and carrots. One pack contains five branded child portions that can be micro-waved from frozen in two minutes.
Despite government concerns over the use of promotional cartoon characters, Blunden does not see it as an issue here: "It's not the same as using characters on high sugar or fat products and, unlike cereals, the vegetable packs in freezers are not highly visible to children so there is less pester potential. The flip side is the Scooby-Doo endorsement should ease the daily battle mums have in persuading children to eat their greens."