Supermarkets will not support the Food Standards Agency (FSA) if it pursues category-specific ‘aspirational targets’ for saturated fat and energy in foods, the British Retail Consortium (BRC) has revealed.
Andrea Martinez-Inchausti, BRC assistant director, food policy, said: “We are absolutely committed to reducing saturated fat and sugar and many companies have already been reformulating products over many years, but specific targets would be completely unworkable."
It was also impractical to look at saturated fat or any other nutrient in isolation given that manufacturers had committed to reducing salt, sugar and other ingredients, she said.
“We’re not suggesting the industry does nothing, but a more workable approach would be to highlight best practice across the industry through achievement tables. These would be continually updated.”
The FSA said it would develop and consult on voluntary targets for saturated fat and energy "in the next couple of months”
Speaking to Food Manufacture at a conference run by the Food and Drink Federation’s Biscuit, Cake, Chocolate and Confectionery sector group, FSA head of nutrition Rosemary Hignett said: “We’re likely to set targets more at the ingredient or component level, rather than at product level, so it might be fat within pastry, or in a biscuit cream fillng for example, rather than for a pie or a biscuit."
The FSA aims to reduce the average intake of saturated fat from the current level of (13.3%) to below 11% of food energy. For its saturated fat and energy programme, it has set up industry stakeholder groups in areas such as meat, dairy, biscuits, confectionery and soft drinks. These are the categories that contribute the most to saturated fat, added sugar and energy intakes.
The Food and Drink Federation said: “Food manufacturers have been reformulating products for years, but it’s a time consuming and costly process, especially for small manufacturers, and setting very specific targets may not be appropriate. But we can’t comment until we see exactly what the FSA has planned.”