Exploring the FSA engagement with industry on fat reduction

Barbara Gallani – BCCC Sector Manager

Salt, Sugar and Fat ReductionReformulating F&B products to increase health benefits whilst maintaining taste, texture and shelf life qualities

London, 24-26 September 2008

Exploring the FSA engagement with industry on fat reduction

• Government recommendations on sat fat;• FSA sat fat and energy intake reduction

programme;• Mainstream reformulation: Partnership Groups;• Biscuits and Cakes – some of the challenges; • Conclusions

FSA Strategic Objectives

“The Food Standards Agency’s (FSA) strategic objectives include a commitment to work with health departments/directorates and other stakeholders to reduce the average intake of saturated fat from the current level of 13.3% to below 11% of food energy by 2010 for everyone over 5 years of age, and to work with health and other departments/directorates to tackle obesity, by helping consumers to achieving a balance between calorie intake and energy output.”

FSA sat fat and energy intake reduction programme

• Consumer awareness campaign;• Increase the range of healthier options offered;• Development of smaller portion sizes;• Mainstream reformulation: Partnership Groups;• Achievements and commitment tables.

FSA Consumer Awareness Campaign (Jan 09)

Place in the diet

Place in the diet

IGD Report - Saturated Fat Communication: Enabling Consumers to Make Informed

Choices (Aug 08)This report provides:

•Levels of saturated fat in the diet and current approaches to achieving a reduction;

•Quantitative research carried out by IGD on consumer understanding of saturated fat labelling;••Consumer recognition of existing messagesabout saturated fat;

•Consumer targeted messages and tools for use by the grocery industry and other stakeholders.

Consumers’ preferred wording:42% prefer 'saturated fat'24% 'fat….of which saturates'6% prefer 'saturates'2% prefer 'sat fat'11% considered any of the four terms to be fine15% were unsure of what any of the terms mean

Range of healthier options

Portion size

The choice is ample

Portion size

52.5g

142g

3.75g

Portion size

49g

230g

245g

10g

Portion size

• Large choice for consumers;• Thriving competition between food

manufacturers;• Not as straightforward an argument as it

might seem.

• FSA stakeholder event on 7 Oct

IGD Report – Portion Size: a Review of Existing Approaches (Sept 08)

This report provides:

• Ways in which portion sizes are definedacross a range of organisations spanning government, industry, non-governmental organisations and healthcare professionals;

• Criteria on which portion sizes are basedand the factors influencing final portion size;

• Recommendations that will help provide the context in which to determine portion size across the food and grocery and foodservice sectors.

Conclusions:• Behavioural studies are required to determine how portion size affects intake outside of the laboratory setting• There is potential to learn about effective communication on portion size from consumers who have been subject to portion control• Under-pinning any type of guidance on portion size is the willingness and ability of the consumer to read and understand food labelling.

Mainstream reformulation:List of partnership groups

• Dairy;• Biscuits and Cakes;• Confectionery;• Meat;• Crisps and snacks;• Soft drinks;• Retailers.

Mainstream reformulation

• Sat Fat IS NOT Salt;

• Role and limitations of FSA partnership groups need to be clearly defined (Competition Law);

• Recognition of different approaches and challenges for different sectors and for different products within the same sector;

• “Reduced claims” in the context of Claims legislation.

Achievements and commitments tables

• Same model as with salt;

• Showcase companies’ initiatives;

• Direct engagement of companies with FSA.

Biscuits and Cakes:some of the challenges.

Contribution to sat fat intake: 4% or 1.1g each

in the average population

Sat fat reductionRecent/on-going reformulation challenges:- Salt - HVO- Increasing prices of raw ingredients

Large range of recipes (i.e. every product is different)

Technical constraints of different systems (i.e. every factory is different)

Differentiation between high-quality and economy ranges

Other issues• Baseline data

• Sales averaged data

• Categorisation of products

• Timescale of 2010 unrealistic (e.g. shelf life studies)

• Legal constraints (shortbread, buttercream, etc.)

• Competition with imported products

• The role of the retailers

Conclusions• We will continue to work with FSA on sat fat and energy intake

reduction to ensure that the technical limitations and costsinvolved are fully understood and taken into account;

• We believe that what FSA is trying to achieve is very challenging, especially considering recent and ongoing reformulation to eliminate or reduce HVOs and salt without compromising taste and texture;

• FSA recognise that measurable reductions in population intakes will be hard to achieve within their current timescale (2010);

• We agree that consumer acceptance of reformulated products as well as better education and information are key to the success of the sat fat and energy reduction initiative.

Barbara Gallani – BCCC Sector ManagerBarbara.gallani@fdf.org.uk

Salt, Sugar and Fat ReductionReformulating F&B products to increase health

benefits whilst maintaining taste, texture and shelf life qualities

London, 24-26 September 2008