FSA considers 10% cut in sat fats for biscuits and cakes

Food Standards Agency (FSA) targets for saturated fat and energy are likely to include calls for a 10% reduction in saturated fat in biscuits, cakes and chocolate confectionery and a 4% reduction in sugar in soft drinks with added sugar, Food Manufacture has learned.

The 'recommendations' (rather than 'targets') will be published this month, with recommendations on other categories to follow later this year.

While the devil would be in the detail, a 10% reduction in saturated fat was technically feasible for most of the products in question, said Geoff Talbot, an independent fats consultant.

Talbot, who was commissioned by the FSA to assess the feasibility of reducing saturated fat in a wide range of products three years ago, said: "A lot depends on the baseline. If you haven't done any reformulation, 10% might be reasonable - but if you have already done a lot, you may not be able to go further."

He added: "Fat suppliers like AAK, ADM and Loders Croklaan have a lot of expertise so, with cake margarine, for example, they can just supply you with a lower sat fat product and you can use that in your recipe and get a 10% reduction without having to make other substantial changes. For things like laminated pastry, it's a bit tougher - and more work is involved. For chocolate, it's a real problem because legislation governing chocolate makes reformulation very difficult."

But any change was challenging and had cost implications, he said. "Reformulating a plain biscuit to achieve a 10% reduction might not present a huge technological problem, but as soon as you add a chocolate coating, it's more complex - the fat can migrate."

Significantly reducing fat might also require the addition of other ingredients to improve texture and structure, plus preservatives to ensure microbiologically stable shelf-life if water activity increased as fat levels dropped, he said.

A lot would depend on how the FSA implemented the 'recommendations', said British Retail Consortium assistant director, food policy, Andrea Martinez-Inchausti. "While we agree with the overall objective, it's difficult to work with overall recommendations across such a broad category. But the time and resource required to develop product specific targets - which might be fairer - is really not warranted. Our members sell hundreds and hundreds of products in each category and they are all different."

The Food and Drink Federation declined to comment ahead of the publication, while the British Soft Drinks Association noted that 'no added sugar', diet or low calorie drinks now accounted for 61% of soft drinks sales in the UK.