Foresight urges processors to redouble reformulation efforts
Britain’s convenience food manufacturers have done much to reformulate products in the drive to curb soaring levels of obesity, but more should be done to improve them, according to government advisers.
Dr Susan Jebb, head of nutrition and health research at the Medical Research Council and a member of the government’s Foresight group into obesity, called for healthier convenience foods. But she recognised the important role they played in society. She argued against demonising convenience foods.
“Consumers are being miss-sold that convenience foods a pseudonym for junk food,” she told a meeting last week in London organised by the Food and Drink Federation (FDF) and Foresight called ‘Convenience foods: help or hindrance in tackling obesity’
“Convenience foods are here to stay,” argued Jebb. “We have to start prioritising [action to address obesity] based on science and evidence, not on emotion.” However, she added: “Too many convenience foods in the market today are of poor nutritional quality and there is absolutely no excuse.”
Tim Lang, professor of food policy at City University and a fellow member of the Foresight group, said the manufacturers’ dilemma was how they steered away from “inappropriate convenience foods” towards food that was healthier for consumers. “Some [convenience foods] are rubbish and need to go and that is the problem,” he said.
But on the broader issue of what was preventing the development of a more sustainable food chain, Lang said: “We do not know yet what the indicators are for a good food system to be able to judge what convenience foods are good and bad … there are the beginnings of engagement, however, [the issue] is not resolved.”
The meeting last week coincided with the anniversary of the Foresight report’s publication last year. The report is intended to help government develop a more coherent set of policy instruments over the next 30 to 40 years to tackle obesity.
Professor Sandy Thomas, head of Foresight, said: “Tackling obesity requires far greater change than anything tried so far and at multiple levels: personal, family, community and national.”
Projections indicate that without radical action, 60% of men and 50% of women in Britain will be clinically obese by 2050, she said. The cost of obesity-related disease to the nation would be around £50bn a year, Thomas warned. “It will take at least 30 years to sort out.”
FDF director general Melanie Leech said manufacturers were “absolutely committed to play a positive role in the debate”. She applauded Foresight for encouraging government to take a more “joined up” and “holistic” approach to policy making in this area.
“[Manufacturers] continue to reformulate and we could argue - with justification - that the UK is leading the world,” claimed Leech. “And I don’t think the foot will come off the accelerator - even with the economic downturn.”
As well as their achievements in reducing salt levels in foods, she said manufacturers had “continued to remove trans fats without increasing saturated fats - something often overlooked”. And on front of pack labelling she argued: “The real challenge is not about which scheme [is best] - traffic lights or guideline daily amounts - but reaching the majority of consumers who don’t read the information.”
Martin Glenn, chief executive of Birds Eye Iglo, railed against the failure in some quarters to have a “rational debate” on obesity. He argued that too many pressure groups refused to recognise that obesity was primarily due to our more sedentary lifestyle, which required a lower calorie intake.
Unfortunately, he added: “Convenience - in the same way as processed [food] - is used by many people as a pejorative term … There is a danger of conflating too many issues of diet and lifestyle.”
