Agency welcomes obesity strategy
Wednesday 23 January 2008
The FSA welcomes the publication of the Department of Health's 'Healthy Weight, Healthy Lives' strategy. It clearly demonstrates that we all have a part to play in the effort to stem the rise of obesity in the UK – this includes Government and the food industry as well as consumers themselves.
‘Improving the UK diet is highlighted as a major theme in today's strategy to tackle obesity and the Agency has a key role to play in this area.’
Chair of the Food Standards Agency, Deirdre Hutton, says: 'Improving the UK diet is highlighted as a major theme in today's strategy to tackle obesity and the Agency has a key role to play in this area.
'Since the publication of the Government's Choosing Health White Paper in 2004, we have been working closely with the food industry, other Government departments, public health professionals and consumers on a range of health and nutrition initiatives to make it easier for everyone to choose healthier foods.
'We have made some good progress – particularly in terms of reformulation to reduce salt content in food and with encouraging food businesses to use clear front-of-pack nutritional labelling on their products, which are key strands in the obesity strategy. We look forward to seeing the outcome of the independent front-of-pack labelling evaluation, which will be starting shortly. This will give us a definitive answer as to what type of labelling approach best helps shoppers to make healthier choices.'
The Agency will soon be launching a programme to tackle excess saturated fat and promote energy balance – another important element of the Government's strategy. This will incorporate a range of initiatives such as reformulation and consumer awareness.
The contribution the catering sector makes to our diets is important and is highlighted in the strategy as we are eating more meals out of home than ever before. The Agency recently published details of the first stage in its work with workplace caterers and we look forward to expanding this to cover a wider range of catering businesses.
Agency work on nutrition and health
See below a summary of the nutrition and health work that has been carried out by the Agency – and which we will continue to progress:
Front-of-pack labelling
After undertaking a large amount of consumer research and consultation with stakeholders, the FSA made recommendation for a 'traffic-light' coloured, front-of-pack nutritional labelling approach in March 2006.
Since this time, eight retailers, 16 manufacturers and four service providers have adopted the approach, as this is what they know their customers want. More businesses are expected to introduce 'traffic light labelling' during 2008. We are also about to embark on a major evaluation of the three front-of-pack labelling schemes being used in the UK (see more about front-of-pack labelling).
Catering
The Agency has recently published details of the first stages in its work to help people eat more healthily in the workplace. Around three million meals are eaten at work every day, two million of which are prepared by contract caterers (see more about our work with caterers).
Salt
Following an ongoing public health campaign by the FSA and a programme of work with industry to reduce salt levels in foods, we have seen a decrease in people's average salt intake in the UK from 9.5g a day to 9g a day.
In 2006, the Agency set salt reduction targets for the food industry to be met by 2010 and significant progress is being made. A review of these targets has begun and will look at what further reductions are needed to maintain progress towards our goal of reducing average daily intakes to no more than 6g of salt per person (see more on our work on salt).
Folate
After careful, scientific consideration, the FSA Board recommended in May 2007 that folic acid should routinely be added to bread or flour in order to reduce the number of babies born with neural tube defects in the UK. Ministers are now considering this recommendation and will make a final decision shortly (more on our work on folic acid).
Nutrient profiling
The Nutrient Profiling model is a tool to identify foods which are high in fat, salt or sugars. The FSA developed the tool specifically for Ofcom to use in its work to regulate the advertising and promotion of foods to children (see more on our work on advertising to children).
Trans fats
The FSA was asked by the Health Secretary earlier this year to undertake a review of trans fats – to assess whether mandatory restrictions are necessary to protect public health. The FSA's Board recommended that as voluntary measures to reduce trans fats have resulted in consumer intakes lower than the maximum recommended, mandatory restrictions are not necessary in the UK. This advice has been sent to Ministers, who will make the final decision (see more about our advice on trans fats).
Saturated fat
The Agency has been in discussion with industry, looking at potential ways to reduce people's saturated fat intakes – which we know are currently too high. The trans fat work that we carried out for Ministers also showed clearly that reducing saturated fat in people's diets should be a priority as it is the greater health risk for the UK population. Having held a consultation last year, we will be publishing a programme of work shortly (more on our proposals on saturated fat).