Key sectors across the food and drink industry, excluding soft drinks, will be “challenged” to slash sugar in their products by 20% from next year, with a 5% reduction planned in year one.
Under the government childhood obesity plan, released today, nine categories making the largest contribution to children’s sugar intake will be expected to reformulate under a PHE-supervised programme.
The sectors included are breakfast cereals, yoghurts, biscuits, cakes, confectionery, morning goods, puddings, ice cream and sweet spreads.
Soft drinks will be exempt because they are going to be the subject of the soft drinks levy, which will come into force in April 2018, although the government has said it will look in future to include drinks beyond the scope of the tax, such as milk-based drinks, in its reformulation plans.
The government dropped proposals to make reformulation targets mandatory, despite calls from the BRC, and instead PHE will advise them on setting targets per 100g of product and calorie caps for specific single-serve products across the nine sectors, with the targets due to be finalised in March 2017.
PHE is due to monitor the success of the voluntary reformulation in September 2018 and then again in March 2020.
“Government will use this information to determine whether sufficient progress is being made and whether alternative levers need to be used,” says the plan.
The government has also indicated it plans to shake up the food labelling system with the possibility of a new “sugar teaspoons equivalent” system on top of its traffic-light front-of-pack system.
The government blamed the EU for a lack of flexibility in labelling to date and said Brexit would enable it to have more ability to determine what information should be presented on pack about sugar.
The plan says the concentration on sugar reduction should not mean companies compensating by increasing the levels of satfats in products. Next year it will look to extend the programme of reformation to include targets for total calories over a wider number of sectors, including the out-of-home sector.
It said work on satfats would be reviewed depending on the outcome of the ongoing SACN working group on the subject, also due to report next year.
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