For years manufacturers have been tweaking and reformulating products to make foods more healthy. And for years retailers have been putting pressure on them to do so. Now the government is jumping on the bandwagon, having recently launched its Change 4 Life campaign - which it claims will "kick-start a lifestyle revolution to halt the rising tide of obesity"
The impact of this "revolution" remains to be seen. But Dr Will Cavendish, director of health and wellbeing for the department of health, claimed that the campaign is already showing "glimmers of hope". And it will be the force that applies the brakes to the accelerating "obesity epidemic", he said at a conference held last month - The Westminster Food and Nutrition Forum on Childhood Obesity and Responsibility.
The same conference also featured a handful of other ministers and MPs who gave the parliamentary perspective to the issue. Mike Penning, shadow minister for health, joked that an 18 stone man was probably not the most conventional person to be tackling the subject of obesity.
His Liberal Democrat counterpart, Sandra Gidley, was equally self-deprecating, remarking that she was walking at every opportunity, "as my body mass index is now about 26" - anything above 25 is usually classed as overweight.
So you might think that if being overweight is okay for MPs, then the same might be true for the rest of the UK. But it seems not. Our political masters continue to point out the errors of our ways and exhort us to do better. The main messages to consumers are, therefore, eat less sugar, eat five portions of fruit or vegetables each day, cut back on fat, reduce unhealthy snacking, buy appropriate portion sizes, make time for regular meals and undertake 60 active minutes every day.
So 2009 is the year of healthy eating - is the message which is being hammered into us from all sides. The Food Standards Agency (FSA) also launched an initiative to raise awareness of the health risks of eating too much saturated fat, last month.
The FSA has found that people in the UK eat on average 20% more saturated fat than the recommended maximum. Consequently, it plans promote leaner meat, encourage retailers to switch to lower-fat milks and dairy, as well as advise consumers to eat healthier snacks and eat fewer cakes and biscuits.
Market researcher TNS Worldpanel said customers have already begun to shun products with higher saturated fat levels. It also noted that consumer purchasing behaviour was changing in categories such as canned goods, frozen prepared foods, ice-cream and frozen puddings, savoury snacks, and yellow fats and milk. Between September 2007 and September 2008, TNS found that purchases across these five categories experienced the biggest declines in saturated fat, by the equivalent of 5,500t year-on-year.
These figures are partly the result of manufacturers' efforts to cut down on the amount of saturated fats in their products, said the FSA. "Manufacturers have done some good work, so that now when people are shopping there is an increasing range of lower saturated fat foods available and better labelling, and we'd like to see more of this," said chief executive Tim Smith.
However, on-the-go foods with a high saturated fat content such as crisps and snacks continue to play an increasing role in consumers' diets. Potato crisps and chip processors have, in some cases, been opting to use healthier oils and fats where possible or using less oil. To date, Walkers has removed around 40,000t of saturated fat from its products by switching to a sunflower oil called sunseed. Over the past few years it has reduced saturated fat content of its standard crisps by 70% and by 80% for Quavers, Monster Munch, Squares and French Fries.
McCain Foods has reduced saturated fat in its potato products through the use of sunflower oils and more efficient production techniques. As a result, it has reduced saturated fat across its range by over 70% in the past five years, and now has an average level of 0.8% saturated fat across both its retail and foodservice lines.
Since November 2008 McVitie's Digestives, McVitie's Hob Nobs and McVitie's Rich Tea also have 50% less saturated fat. And a year ago Sainsbury also launched a 1% fat milk - which now accounts for 4% of its milk sales, said Beth Hart, Sainsbury nutrition and health manager. "We were the first supermarket to sell own brand 1% fat milk."
She claimed that Sainsbury's 1% fat milk contains 40% less saturated fat than semi skimmed and in taste tests two out of three people couldn't tell the difference.
**Paying the price**
"But changing the recipes of much-loved British brands so that they are lower in saturated fat is a complex task, as it needs to be done in a way that does not impact on functionality, quality or price," said Julian Hunt, Food and Drink Federation (FDF) director of communications.
Changing recipes can cause a whole raft of problems for manufacturers - changes to taste, texture, appeal, shelf-life, functionality are just a few. There is also often a huge expense involved in overcoming these problems. "Reformulating recipes to have less saturated fats, salt and sugar, is not cheap or easy," said Hunt. "Without naming names, it has taken one household brand nearly two years to bring down the levels of saturated fat in its products and cost the company around £6M."
But it's not just saturated fat that manufacturers have had to contend with. There's also been significant reduction of salt in products. He said that TNS Worldpanel data, collected between September 2006 and September 2008, showed that shoppers bought 3,794t less salt in five categories: bread, breakfast cereals, canned goods, crisps, and savoury home cooking products.
"The research gives us a snapshot of how salt levels are reducing, and builds on the reformulation work our members have been carrying out over many years. Bread and cereals are two good examples of categories where salt reduction has been ongoing for some considerable time," added Hunt.
In the bread market, including morning goods such as croissants and crumpets, the data shows that products bought by consumers over the two-year period contained 828t less salt. But these reductions have not been easy for the baking industry, said Gordon Polson, director of the Federation of Bakers. "Although our members are happy to be working with the FSA towards the 2010 target, the reduction of salt in bread thus far has been immensely challenging for the entire industry as salt plays such a critical role in dough formation."
The Federation of Bakers entered into discussions with the FSA to agree a target for salt reduction by 2010, which was set at 0.43g sodium per 100g (equivalent to 1.1g salt per 100g). There has been a 10% reduction in the two years to the end of 2005, and further reductions will be made to meet the 2010 target, said Polson.
Salt reductions have also been achieved in the dairy industry, despite it playing a vital role in ensuring microbiological safety and consistent flavour. But "working with the FSA, we have achieved salt savings in excess of 350t per year", which equates to a 7% reduction in salt content, said technical director Ed Komorowski of Dairy UK. He said soft cheeses have seen the biggest average fall in dairy, down more than 0.2g to less than 0.8g of salt per 100g of product.
But making products "healthier" by reducing essential ingredients such as salt, sugar and fats is not cheap. So while the government pushes its healthy eating message throughout 2009, this has left policy-makers wondering about the impact of the recession.
Dr Will Cavendish of the department of health added: "As family budgets continue to tighten, the state of the economy is the main threat to the success of Change 4 Life. If consumers have less money, they may opt for cheaper food, which is often less healthy." FM