Separate UK salt rules could wreck exports of dairy foods
Manufacturing costs for companies supplying multiple markets from the same factory could dramatically increase with the introduction of tougher new salt targets that only apply in the UK, the industry trade association Dairy UK has warned.
Speaking ahead of publication of the targets, which were expected this month, Dairy UK's technical director Ed Komorowski said: "It's not just an issue of reformulated domestic products struggling to compete with saltier imports. The problem is that UK manufacturers making products for export, or UK businesses with factories overseas that supply several countries, will have to produce separate products for separate markets. That's not commercially viable."
The alternative - to supply every market with reduced-salt products - was equally risky, he claimed. "If you are competing with businesses that are not subject to the same restrictions on salt, you risk losing business because the taste of reduced salt cheese and butter is so different. What we need is co-ordination across Europe."
There were also technical concerns outstanding, he said. "Salt plays an integral part in the biochemistry of the cheese and its development process. For cheeses like Stilton, reducing salt to the levels required is just not feasible."
The Food Standards Agency (FSA) said it was "aware that there are a number of technical and food safety issues" at stake and confirmed it was working with the Stilton Cheesemakers' Association to look at what further research was needed to establish the scope for salt reduction in Stilton. "We will then be better placed to identify whether we might assist," it said.
The FSA said it was also "taking steps to encourage international debate on salt reduction, particularly in the European Union (EU)". That included raising the issue at the Obesity Platform event last September and at the EU heads of food safety agency meeting last November.
Meanwhile, latest figures showed that UK manufacturers had cut salt levels further in their products, claimed the Food and Drink Federation (FDF).
Levels in soups and sauces were cut by 10% in 2005, following similar cuts in 2003 and 2004, while breakfast cereals contained on average less than 1g of salt per 100g after a 33% cut in levels between 1998 and 2005, said the FDF.
l The Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) has upheld a nutritionist's complaint against a Food Standards Agency (FSA) advertisement about salt.
It agreed that the FSA was wrong to claim that the blood pressure of everyone in a featured family had fallen after the family cut its salt intake and that the salt reduction was the cause. The ASA rejected complaints about references to "unhealthy snacks"
