from Clare Cheney, director general, Provision Trade Federation
Sir; Some of Melanie Johnson’s replies (‘Johnson: we need to work together’, October 16, p36) were unclear. The most confusing concerned the division of responsibility between the Department of Health and the Food Standards Agency. She said the DoH had responsibility for “wider public health policy issues of nutrition” and “links between diet and health, where nutritional status is one of a number of risk factors”.
Does this mean the DoH decides the policy for FSA to act upon by, for example, co-ordinating action by stakeholders to meet the policy objectives? If so, where the policy has been decided, the DoH should leave the FSA to get on with it. This will make communications clearer, and also more likely to succeed because the FSA has proved itself more effective in working with stakeholders than DoH, whose approach has often been dictatorial and confrontational.
There are some foods, such as ham and cheese, whose salt levels cannot be reduced
significantly for technological reasons. In such cases, consumer advice is needed on portion sizes which, when combined with other foods will produce meals with a salt level well within healthy limits. What is the point of a red traffic light if the consumer doesn’t know what to do with it?
If they decide to avoid anything with a red label, consumers may find it so impossible to create enjoyable meals with what’s left over they may give up in disgust and the DoH will not achieve the ultimate objective, to reduce salt in the diet to below 6g a day.
Sir; Some of Melanie Johnson’s replies (‘Johnson: we need to work together’, October 16, p36) were unclear. The most confusing concerned the division of responsibility between the Department of Health and the Food Standards Agency. She said the DoH had responsibility for “wider public health policy issues of nutrition” and “links between diet and health, where nutritional status is one of a number of risk factors”.
Does this mean the DoH decides the policy for FSA to act upon by, for example, co-ordinating action by stakeholders to meet the policy objectives? If so, where the policy has been decided, the DoH should leave the FSA to get on with it. This will make communications clearer, and also more likely to succeed because the FSA has proved itself more effective in working with stakeholders than DoH, whose approach has often been dictatorial and confrontational.
There are some foods, such as ham and cheese, whose salt levels cannot be reduced
significantly for technological reasons. In such cases, consumer advice is needed on portion sizes which, when combined with other foods will produce meals with a salt level well within healthy limits. What is the point of a red traffic light if the consumer doesn’t know what to do with it?
If they decide to avoid anything with a red label, consumers may find it so impossible to create enjoyable meals with what’s left over they may give up in disgust and the DoH will not achieve the ultimate objective, to reduce salt in the diet to below 6g a day.
No comments yet