The UK's biggest selling brands are undergoing an all-too quiet revolution. Embracing the need to tackle the growing obesity crisis, responding to changing consumer tastes, manufacturers (and retailers) are spending millions on changing recipes - in some cases more than 50 years old - to reduce or cut out fat, salt and sugar as well as hydrogenated fats, preservatives, additives and colourings.
Yet, for all their efforts, there is little if any recognition of the work that's going on. Little distinction is made between foods - by the government, by the media or various lobbying groups - as the industry is singly positioned as the villain of the piece, always trying to hoodwink consumers.
As a result of reformulation some manufacturers have escaped the controversial Ofcom ban on advertising to children that has just come into effect. But the inflexibility of the Nutrient Profiling Model is such that, no matter what they do and how much they change, no amount of reformulation is enough to prevent some products from being banned.
Based on the unnaturally large 100g portions by which the Food Standards Agency has scored them, cheese, raisins, more than 90% of cereals, honey, Marmite, tomato ketchup, mayonnaise and all other condiments, not to mention olive oil and low-fat margarine, are hit by the ban.
Of course, product reformulation has been going on for years in some cases, whether in response to changing consumer tastes or the latest medical information. McCain, the brand that finally freed us from the chip pan almost 30 years ago, has been reformulating ever since.
It's 20 years now since it replaced its vegetable oil with sunflower oil to reduce saturated fat. Across its whole potato range, including food service, McCain has reduced the total amount of saturated fat in its products by 72% over five years.
"Across all our products the average weight of saturated fat has reduced from 3g per 100g three years ago to 0.8g per 100g now," says McCain corporate affairs director Bill Bartlett.
McCain has also worked hard to reduce sodium levels - but slowly, to allow consumer palates to adjust. "Over a five-year window we've reduced sodium across our range by 18% and by 2010 we will have reduced sodium by 22%," adds Bartlett.
McCain's hard work has paid off. It is free to advertise its oven chips to all age groups, as it 'passes' the FSA's Nutrient Profiling Model. But the hard work put in by confectionery manufacturer Leaf UK appears to have been in vain.
"We have taken on the obesity issue, changed our Chewits recipes (taking out hydrogenated fats, adding juice etc.), to be as healthy as a sweet can be, and we are launching, at a lot of expense, a better-for-you range of sweets called Red Band," says MD Tony Camp. "And all we get is a kick in the teeth. I cannot believe that we are not being supported by the government."
Cereal manufacturers are similarly angered. Sugar Puffs, the former Quaker brand now owned by Big Bear, has had its salt and sugar levels steadily reduced in response to consumer demand and better health understanding.
The brand first reduced sugar levels from nearly 50% to about 45% 10 years ago, says marketing director Paula Moss, and they were lowered again about two years ago to 35%. Kellogg launched a reduced-sugar Frosties last year, as well as Optivita, which has no added salt.
But despite the sterling work put in by major brands to reduce salt and sugar levels and improve vitamin and mineral fortification, most breakfast cereals - including Bran Flakes, porridge and Alpen - still fall under the 'junk food' banner, according to the FSA.
Set this against the alarming fact that one in five children go to school on an empty stomach and it's easy to see why we, and many in the food industry and beyond, think the FSA's Nutrient Profiling Model should be reviewed.
Snack food brands also feel justifiably frustrated. PepisCo spent £6m reformulating its core Walkers range last year. It removed 70% of saturated fat by cooking with Sunseed oil, which is naturally high in mono-unsaturates and even lower in saturates than olive oil.
It also reduced salt per pack to just 0.5g - less than a slice of bread. This year, Walkers relaunched Quavers, Monster Munch, Walkers Squares and French Fries - removing 80% of saturated fat and at least 25% salt.
Kraft Foods has put in similar efforts with its family of Dairylea products. Lunchables has periodically come in for a drubbing from nutritionists because of its high salt and fat levels. But over the past year Kraft has reduced its fat by 32% and saturated fat by 34%. Salt -levels were lowered by 9%. Since 2002 the salt in Lunchables has dropped by 40% in total.
This month, Kraft announced it would fortify the product with vitamin D to aid absorption of the calcium that it naturally contains, while the bread and crackers in the range will now contain wholegrain - increasing the overall fibre content of Lunchables by 103%. These latest product improvements were benchmarked to match nutrient percentages in a cheese and ham sandwich a parent might typically make for their child at home.
It's not just brands that are investing in product reformulation either. Tesco began its Product Improvement Programme two years ago to reduce fat, saturates, salt, sugar, hydrogenated fat and additives in all its own-label products.
"In 2005/06 we reduced the salt in more than 500 of our most popular everyday product lines," says Lucy Neville-Rolfe, Tesco corporate affairs director. "These include baked beans by 25% , canned soup by 30%, bread by 10% and beef lasagne by 55%. We are now reviewing the salt content of a further 2,000 own-brand products and have pledged to cut the amount of salt they contain to meet the Department of Health and Food Standards Agency target of 6g by 2010.
"We also reduced fat in 125 products, saturated fat in 143 products and sugar in 53 products and will continue to improve on this in 2007."
The Tesco Kids range includes more than 40 meals, snacks, lunchbox products and drinks for five to 10-year-olds. They contain controlled levels of salt, sugar and fat, as set by the Tesco nutritionists.
Asda also makes impressive claims. A weekly shop in 2006 contained 24% less salt than exactly the same basket of groceries in 2005. And Sainsbury's, the first food company to put children's GDAs on children's food products, is also working hard on -reformulations.
These extensive reformulation programmes haven't gone entirely unnoticed. Many health experts are prepared to give credit for the work completed so far. "I have great faith in the food manufacturing industry," says Stephanie French, MD of marketing and strategy consultancy Nutrition Directions. "It is switched on to the need for responsibility. It has made an enormous and positive difference already."
Consumers, too, welcome the changes. Research by the IGD shows that two thirds of shoppers now cite health as a key influence on their purchasing decisions, 35% of shoppers say they eat five portions of fruit and vegetables a day, 35% say they take -regular exercise and 38% claim to eat low-fat versions of food.
"Shoppers are increasingly looking to food as a way of promoting and maintaining their health," says IGD chief executive Joanne Denney-Finch. "However, products still need to perform against existing shopper expectations, as products will not succeed on a health platform alone.
Product benefits need to be clearly communicated to consumers, so if wellbeing is the key attribute of a product, the shopper needs to understand how this promotes health rather than simply knowing that it does."
Despite extensive product reformulation, however, and the healthy attributes of many products, cheese, breakfast cereals and many other foods will continue to be banned from advertising to children - unless The Grocer's Weigh It Up! campaign can prompt a review by Ofcom of the methodology.
Manufacturers say they can't take reformulation much further. "We are getting to the limits of how low we can go on fat," says Bartlett. Kraft's Wood agrees: "When we're talking about a product like cheese, fat and salt are an inherent part of that and natural constituents in it."
However, Kraft has promised to continue to test the technical barriers to product reformulation to deliver high quality, safe, good-tasting products for consumers.
"The consumer groups have a clearly-stated position and we expect them to keep the pressure up," adds corporate affairs director Julia Westcott. "However, that won't deter us from continuing our efforts and demonstrating the progress we have made."
More important than credit, as far as the industry is concerned, is the need to change consumer behaviour. As Denney-Finch says: "The industry has invested millions in supporting the campaign against obesity through innovation and product reformulation.
"What is really important is that, as our consumer research shows, we are seeing real changes in eating habits."nBreakfast Clubs
The F SA has ostracised the breakfast cereal brands children have loved, and thrived on, for years - but Kellogg and Asda are busy promoting the positive aspects of starting the day on a good breakfast.
Since 1998, Kellogg has invested more than £500,000 in helping schools set up and run breakfast clubs.
Working with the national learning charity ContinYou, it doesn't promote its own cereals, but instead encourages the concept of a 'breakfast culture' - sitting down to eat breakfast in a safe, warm, sociable and stimulating environment.
The ContinYou and Kellogg's breakfast clubs now serve more than half a million breakfasts in schools each year.
ContinYou and Kellogg's research shows that 52% of parents struggle to get their children to eat breakfast. One in five children do not eat it regularly, and 25% of children eat crisps or chocolate on the way to school.
The research also shows that school breakfast clubs improve attendance and punctuality, raise concentration levels in the mornings and help improve educational attainment levels.
And yet the Nutrient Profiling Model means more than 90% of breakfast cereals are banned from being advertis ed to children.
Asda is also working hard to establish more breakfast clubs. Last year, as part of its community initiative, Big Healthy Eat, it worked with 500 schools to encourage children to eat a healthy breakfast.
The project reached more than 450,000 children, helping schools set up their own clubs and providing the first month's breakfast products free.The dark side of product reformulation
Diet fizzy drinks of little nutritional value can be advertised to children, while calcium-rich cheese can't. What better examples to demonstrates the major flaw in the Nutrient Profiling Model?
"There is a concern that this nutrient profiling model may lead to misguided reformulations, for example to replace sugar with artificial sweeteners rather than looking to enhance the positive dietary contribution of foods," says Stephanie French, MD of marketing and strategy consultancy Nutrition Directions.
"Should we really be encouraging manufacturers to increase the use of artificial sweeteners in foods promoted to children when work is still ongoing on possible links with ADHD (attention deficit hyperactivity disorder)?"
Perhaps more worryingly, next month the Food Standards Agency will publish a 'strategy' for fat and energy amounts in much of the food on sale. It claims this will help consumers reduce their saturated fat intakes to achieve 'energy balance".
If food manufacturers are forced to reformulate recipes, they are likely to have to 'fill' the gaps with water, meaning a greater amount of microbial growth, which will in turn mean a greater need for artificial preservatives.
Says Gaynor Bussell, the Food and Drink Federation's nutrition manager: "We are trying to encourage FSA to have a broader, holistic and science-based view on diet and health, acknowledging that its remit is much narrower than that of the DoH."
She also points out that a calorie intake drop across the population might be harmful to the young or old. "If the energy density is decreased, some elderly and young people, or others with a poor appetite, may not be able to get sufficient calories from the volume of food they manage to eat.
"The overall composition of the diet will need to be modelled and monitored so that macronutrients are consumed in the right proportion and micronutrient and antioxidant levels of the diet do not decrease.Cathedral City
Credit: Manufacturers are making strides to reduce fat levels in cheese but it's hard to eliminate the fat without destroying the taste and texture . However, Cathedral City Lighter Mature Cheddar, which hits shelves this week, has 30% less fat than the standard cheese and took two years to develop.
Debit: As with other cheeses it will still be banned from advertising on television to children under 16.Walkers Crisps
Credit: PepsiCo switched its Walkers crisps to Sunseed oil In January 2005, cutting saturated fat by 70% and increasing the proportion of healthier monosaturated fat. It also cut salt levels by 25% to 0.5g a bag. Its snack brands Quavers, French Fries, Squares, Monster Munch and Wotsits will this month be made with Sunseed oil, again slashing saturated fat content by 70%.
Debit: Despite such huge cuts in fat, no brands of crisps can advertise to children.Kellogg's Cereal
Credit: Kellogg has reduced the salt and sugar content of its cereals over a number of years. Overall, salt has been reduced by 30-40%, with Cornflakes and Rice Crispies getting a 25% salt reduction. All-Bran has seen a 30% salt reduction. Kellogg also launched a reduced sugar variant of Frosties in 2004, with 33% less sugar, and developed Optivita, which has no added salt.
Debit: Most of Kellogg's cereals can't be advertised on TV to children.Heinz pasta
Credit: Last July Heinz changed its canned pasta recipe from standard durum wheat to a healthier multigrain recipe that blends durum wheat with oatmeal, rye and maize flours and wheat bran, which provides a more nutritionally balanced meal. The company has also added Omega-3 essential fatty acids to its canned pasta shapes.
Debit: Like many ready meals, Heinz pasta is not banned from advertising to children, but it changed its recipe regardless.
Flora
Credit: Unilever has cut the fat content of its margarine by 30% over the past five years and has also removed trans fats from its products. It produces Flora Light and Flora Diet, which contains 23% vegetable fat, and has launched an Omega-3 variant. A 20g serving (the amount you would put on two slices of bread) provides a third of the recommended daily intake of Omega-3.
Debit: All variants, based on 100g servings, are banned from advertising to children.dairylea
Credit: Kraft Foods has -reduced the salt content of its kids' cheese brand Dairylea by 30% over the past five years. It has also relaunched its Dairylea Lunchables brand, cutting fat and saturated fat by 32% and 34% respectively and reducing salt levels by a further 9%. It has also added wholegrain bread to the product. Lunchables now contains 40% less salt than five years ago.
Debit: Cheese is still not deemed by Ofcom to be a suitable product to advertise to children.Oven Chips
Credit: McCain first reformulated the recipe of its oven chips 20 years ago when it replaced its standard vegetable oil with sunflower oil, which contains lower levels of saturated fat. In the past three years fat levels have fallen further, from 3g per 100g to 0.8g per 100g, helping its oven chips score green under the traffic light labelling system.
Debit: As a result of the reformulation, McCain's chips now escape the Ofcom ruling.
Sugar Puffs
redit: The former Quaker brand, now owned by Big Bear, first lowered sugar levels from nearly 50% to around 45% 10 years ago and two years ago further cut the levels to 35%. The cereal now contains less than two teaspoons of sugar per 30g, provides only 0.5g fat, trace amounts of salt, 114 calories and just 10% of a child's GDA for sugar.
Debit: No amount of reformulation can save Sugar Puffs from Ofcom's ban.Bread
Credit: Salt levels in bread have been reduced by some 25% over the past 20 years, according to the Federation of Bakers. A further 5% cut in 2004 demonstrates that salt reduction is an ongoing process. This work has been done in spite of the fact that cutting salt is immensely challenging because of its effect on taste and the critical role it plays in dough formation.
DEBit: No bread is banned from advertising to kids but the industry is making changes anyway.Heinz tomato ketchup
Credit: Heinz recently launched a reduced sugar and salt version of its iconic tomato ketchup, which contains 30% less added sugar and salt as well as no artificial sweeteners, colours, flavours or preservatives. Its arrival follows the launch of Reduced Sugar & Salt Baked Beanz two years ago.
DEBit: Because of the unrealistic 100g ruling, even these changes won't mean ketchup w ill escape Ofcom's advertising ban.
Yet, for all their efforts, there is little if any recognition of the work that's going on. Little distinction is made between foods - by the government, by the media or various lobbying groups - as the industry is singly positioned as the villain of the piece, always trying to hoodwink consumers.
As a result of reformulation some manufacturers have escaped the controversial Ofcom ban on advertising to children that has just come into effect. But the inflexibility of the Nutrient Profiling Model is such that, no matter what they do and how much they change, no amount of reformulation is enough to prevent some products from being banned.
Based on the unnaturally large 100g portions by which the Food Standards Agency has scored them, cheese, raisins, more than 90% of cereals, honey, Marmite, tomato ketchup, mayonnaise and all other condiments, not to mention olive oil and low-fat margarine, are hit by the ban.
Of course, product reformulation has been going on for years in some cases, whether in response to changing consumer tastes or the latest medical information. McCain, the brand that finally freed us from the chip pan almost 30 years ago, has been reformulating ever since.
It's 20 years now since it replaced its vegetable oil with sunflower oil to reduce saturated fat. Across its whole potato range, including food service, McCain has reduced the total amount of saturated fat in its products by 72% over five years.
"Across all our products the average weight of saturated fat has reduced from 3g per 100g three years ago to 0.8g per 100g now," says McCain corporate affairs director Bill Bartlett.
McCain has also worked hard to reduce sodium levels - but slowly, to allow consumer palates to adjust. "Over a five-year window we've reduced sodium across our range by 18% and by 2010 we will have reduced sodium by 22%," adds Bartlett.
McCain's hard work has paid off. It is free to advertise its oven chips to all age groups, as it 'passes' the FSA's Nutrient Profiling Model. But the hard work put in by confectionery manufacturer Leaf UK appears to have been in vain.
"We have taken on the obesity issue, changed our Chewits recipes (taking out hydrogenated fats, adding juice etc.), to be as healthy as a sweet can be, and we are launching, at a lot of expense, a better-for-you range of sweets called Red Band," says MD Tony Camp. "And all we get is a kick in the teeth. I cannot believe that we are not being supported by the government."
Cereal manufacturers are similarly angered. Sugar Puffs, the former Quaker brand now owned by Big Bear, has had its salt and sugar levels steadily reduced in response to consumer demand and better health understanding.
The brand first reduced sugar levels from nearly 50% to about 45% 10 years ago, says marketing director Paula Moss, and they were lowered again about two years ago to 35%. Kellogg launched a reduced-sugar Frosties last year, as well as Optivita, which has no added salt.
But despite the sterling work put in by major brands to reduce salt and sugar levels and improve vitamin and mineral fortification, most breakfast cereals - including Bran Flakes, porridge and Alpen - still fall under the 'junk food' banner, according to the FSA.
Set this against the alarming fact that one in five children go to school on an empty stomach and it's easy to see why we, and many in the food industry and beyond, think the FSA's Nutrient Profiling Model should be reviewed.
Snack food brands also feel justifiably frustrated. PepisCo spent £6m reformulating its core Walkers range last year. It removed 70% of saturated fat by cooking with Sunseed oil, which is naturally high in mono-unsaturates and even lower in saturates than olive oil.
It also reduced salt per pack to just 0.5g - less than a slice of bread. This year, Walkers relaunched Quavers, Monster Munch, Walkers Squares and French Fries - removing 80% of saturated fat and at least 25% salt.
Kraft Foods has put in similar efforts with its family of Dairylea products. Lunchables has periodically come in for a drubbing from nutritionists because of its high salt and fat levels. But over the past year Kraft has reduced its fat by 32% and saturated fat by 34%. Salt -levels were lowered by 9%. Since 2002 the salt in Lunchables has dropped by 40% in total.
This month, Kraft announced it would fortify the product with vitamin D to aid absorption of the calcium that it naturally contains, while the bread and crackers in the range will now contain wholegrain - increasing the overall fibre content of Lunchables by 103%. These latest product improvements were benchmarked to match nutrient percentages in a cheese and ham sandwich a parent might typically make for their child at home.
It's not just brands that are investing in product reformulation either. Tesco began its Product Improvement Programme two years ago to reduce fat, saturates, salt, sugar, hydrogenated fat and additives in all its own-label products.
"In 2005/06 we reduced the salt in more than 500 of our most popular everyday product lines," says Lucy Neville-Rolfe, Tesco corporate affairs director. "These include baked beans by 25% , canned soup by 30%, bread by 10% and beef lasagne by 55%. We are now reviewing the salt content of a further 2,000 own-brand products and have pledged to cut the amount of salt they contain to meet the Department of Health and Food Standards Agency target of 6g by 2010.
"We also reduced fat in 125 products, saturated fat in 143 products and sugar in 53 products and will continue to improve on this in 2007."
The Tesco Kids range includes more than 40 meals, snacks, lunchbox products and drinks for five to 10-year-olds. They contain controlled levels of salt, sugar and fat, as set by the Tesco nutritionists.
Asda also makes impressive claims. A weekly shop in 2006 contained 24% less salt than exactly the same basket of groceries in 2005. And Sainsbury's, the first food company to put children's GDAs on children's food products, is also working hard on -reformulations.
These extensive reformulation programmes haven't gone entirely unnoticed. Many health experts are prepared to give credit for the work completed so far. "I have great faith in the food manufacturing industry," says Stephanie French, MD of marketing and strategy consultancy Nutrition Directions. "It is switched on to the need for responsibility. It has made an enormous and positive difference already."
Consumers, too, welcome the changes. Research by the IGD shows that two thirds of shoppers now cite health as a key influence on their purchasing decisions, 35% of shoppers say they eat five portions of fruit and vegetables a day, 35% say they take -regular exercise and 38% claim to eat low-fat versions of food.
"Shoppers are increasingly looking to food as a way of promoting and maintaining their health," says IGD chief executive Joanne Denney-Finch. "However, products still need to perform against existing shopper expectations, as products will not succeed on a health platform alone.
Product benefits need to be clearly communicated to consumers, so if wellbeing is the key attribute of a product, the shopper needs to understand how this promotes health rather than simply knowing that it does."
Despite extensive product reformulation, however, and the healthy attributes of many products, cheese, breakfast cereals and many other foods will continue to be banned from advertising to children - unless The Grocer's Weigh It Up! campaign can prompt a review by Ofcom of the methodology.
Manufacturers say they can't take reformulation much further. "We are getting to the limits of how low we can go on fat," says Bartlett. Kraft's Wood agrees: "When we're talking about a product like cheese, fat and salt are an inherent part of that and natural constituents in it."
However, Kraft has promised to continue to test the technical barriers to product reformulation to deliver high quality, safe, good-tasting products for consumers.
"The consumer groups have a clearly-stated position and we expect them to keep the pressure up," adds corporate affairs director Julia Westcott. "However, that won't deter us from continuing our efforts and demonstrating the progress we have made."
More important than credit, as far as the industry is concerned, is the need to change consumer behaviour. As Denney-Finch says: "The industry has invested millions in supporting the campaign against obesity through innovation and product reformulation.
"What is really important is that, as our consumer research shows, we are seeing real changes in eating habits."nBreakfast Clubs
The F SA has ostracised the breakfast cereal brands children have loved, and thrived on, for years - but Kellogg and Asda are busy promoting the positive aspects of starting the day on a good breakfast.
Since 1998, Kellogg has invested more than £500,000 in helping schools set up and run breakfast clubs.
Working with the national learning charity ContinYou, it doesn't promote its own cereals, but instead encourages the concept of a 'breakfast culture' - sitting down to eat breakfast in a safe, warm, sociable and stimulating environment.
The ContinYou and Kellogg's breakfast clubs now serve more than half a million breakfasts in schools each year.
ContinYou and Kellogg's research shows that 52% of parents struggle to get their children to eat breakfast. One in five children do not eat it regularly, and 25% of children eat crisps or chocolate on the way to school.
The research also shows that school breakfast clubs improve attendance and punctuality, raise concentration levels in the mornings and help improve educational attainment levels.
And yet the Nutrient Profiling Model means more than 90% of breakfast cereals are banned from being advertis ed to children.
Asda is also working hard to establish more breakfast clubs. Last year, as part of its community initiative, Big Healthy Eat, it worked with 500 schools to encourage children to eat a healthy breakfast.
The project reached more than 450,000 children, helping schools set up their own clubs and providing the first month's breakfast products free.The dark side of product reformulation
Diet fizzy drinks of little nutritional value can be advertised to children, while calcium-rich cheese can't. What better examples to demonstrates the major flaw in the Nutrient Profiling Model?
"There is a concern that this nutrient profiling model may lead to misguided reformulations, for example to replace sugar with artificial sweeteners rather than looking to enhance the positive dietary contribution of foods," says Stephanie French, MD of marketing and strategy consultancy Nutrition Directions.
"Should we really be encouraging manufacturers to increase the use of artificial sweeteners in foods promoted to children when work is still ongoing on possible links with ADHD (attention deficit hyperactivity disorder)?"
Perhaps more worryingly, next month the Food Standards Agency will publish a 'strategy' for fat and energy amounts in much of the food on sale. It claims this will help consumers reduce their saturated fat intakes to achieve 'energy balance".
If food manufacturers are forced to reformulate recipes, they are likely to have to 'fill' the gaps with water, meaning a greater amount of microbial growth, which will in turn mean a greater need for artificial preservatives.
Says Gaynor Bussell, the Food and Drink Federation's nutrition manager: "We are trying to encourage FSA to have a broader, holistic and science-based view on diet and health, acknowledging that its remit is much narrower than that of the DoH."
She also points out that a calorie intake drop across the population might be harmful to the young or old. "If the energy density is decreased, some elderly and young people, or others with a poor appetite, may not be able to get sufficient calories from the volume of food they manage to eat.
"The overall composition of the diet will need to be modelled and monitored so that macronutrients are consumed in the right proportion and micronutrient and antioxidant levels of the diet do not decrease.Cathedral City
Credit: Manufacturers are making strides to reduce fat levels in cheese but it's hard to eliminate the fat without destroying the taste and texture . However, Cathedral City Lighter Mature Cheddar, which hits shelves this week, has 30% less fat than the standard cheese and took two years to develop.
Debit: As with other cheeses it will still be banned from advertising on television to children under 16.Walkers Crisps
Credit: PepsiCo switched its Walkers crisps to Sunseed oil In January 2005, cutting saturated fat by 70% and increasing the proportion of healthier monosaturated fat. It also cut salt levels by 25% to 0.5g a bag. Its snack brands Quavers, French Fries, Squares, Monster Munch and Wotsits will this month be made with Sunseed oil, again slashing saturated fat content by 70%.
Debit: Despite such huge cuts in fat, no brands of crisps can advertise to children.Kellogg's Cereal
Credit: Kellogg has reduced the salt and sugar content of its cereals over a number of years. Overall, salt has been reduced by 30-40%, with Cornflakes and Rice Crispies getting a 25% salt reduction. All-Bran has seen a 30% salt reduction. Kellogg also launched a reduced sugar variant of Frosties in 2004, with 33% less sugar, and developed Optivita, which has no added salt.
Debit: Most of Kellogg's cereals can't be advertised on TV to children.Heinz pasta
Credit: Last July Heinz changed its canned pasta recipe from standard durum wheat to a healthier multigrain recipe that blends durum wheat with oatmeal, rye and maize flours and wheat bran, which provides a more nutritionally balanced meal. The company has also added Omega-3 essential fatty acids to its canned pasta shapes.
Debit: Like many ready meals, Heinz pasta is not banned from advertising to children, but it changed its recipe regardless.
Flora
Credit: Unilever has cut the fat content of its margarine by 30% over the past five years and has also removed trans fats from its products. It produces Flora Light and Flora Diet, which contains 23% vegetable fat, and has launched an Omega-3 variant. A 20g serving (the amount you would put on two slices of bread) provides a third of the recommended daily intake of Omega-3.
Debit: All variants, based on 100g servings, are banned from advertising to children.dairylea
Credit: Kraft Foods has -reduced the salt content of its kids' cheese brand Dairylea by 30% over the past five years. It has also relaunched its Dairylea Lunchables brand, cutting fat and saturated fat by 32% and 34% respectively and reducing salt levels by a further 9%. It has also added wholegrain bread to the product. Lunchables now contains 40% less salt than five years ago.
Debit: Cheese is still not deemed by Ofcom to be a suitable product to advertise to children.Oven Chips
Credit: McCain first reformulated the recipe of its oven chips 20 years ago when it replaced its standard vegetable oil with sunflower oil, which contains lower levels of saturated fat. In the past three years fat levels have fallen further, from 3g per 100g to 0.8g per 100g, helping its oven chips score green under the traffic light labelling system.
Debit: As a result of the reformulation, McCain's chips now escape the Ofcom ruling.
Sugar Puffs
redit: The former Quaker brand, now owned by Big Bear, first lowered sugar levels from nearly 50% to around 45% 10 years ago and two years ago further cut the levels to 35%. The cereal now contains less than two teaspoons of sugar per 30g, provides only 0.5g fat, trace amounts of salt, 114 calories and just 10% of a child's GDA for sugar.
Debit: No amount of reformulation can save Sugar Puffs from Ofcom's ban.Bread
Credit: Salt levels in bread have been reduced by some 25% over the past 20 years, according to the Federation of Bakers. A further 5% cut in 2004 demonstrates that salt reduction is an ongoing process. This work has been done in spite of the fact that cutting salt is immensely challenging because of its effect on taste and the critical role it plays in dough formation.
DEBit: No bread is banned from advertising to kids but the industry is making changes anyway.Heinz tomato ketchup
Credit: Heinz recently launched a reduced sugar and salt version of its iconic tomato ketchup, which contains 30% less added sugar and salt as well as no artificial sweeteners, colours, flavours or preservatives. Its arrival follows the launch of Reduced Sugar & Salt Baked Beanz two years ago.
DEBit: Because of the unrealistic 100g ruling, even these changes won't mean ketchup w ill escape Ofcom's advertising ban.
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