Research shows calories have been slashed in British shopping baskets

New data, recently unveiled by Kantar Worldpanel, has revealed that products from Food and Drink Federation (FDF) members are now contributing a third less salt (33%), and a quarter less sugar (25%) and calories (24%) into British retail compared to 2015.

HFSS regulations and changing attitudes to diet, health and wellbeing are being seen as major contributors to the figures, with significant investment ongoing in the food and drink sectors to promote innovation.

In 2023 alone, more than £160 million was spent on the research and development of healthier products, including reformulating existing recipes and changing portion sizes.

Creating delicious and nutritious food and drink, said Kate Halliwell, chief scientific officer at the FDF, is no easy task, requiring vast resources, time and technical expertise. Kate said she is proud to see continued advances being made within the industry, which is committed to bringing healthier options to British shopping baskets, but thinks additional support is needed to take initiatives further.

“The industry, and in particular smaller companies, could do even more with better government support, which is currently only a fraction of what’s available to, for example, investments in the aerospace or automotive manufacturing sectors,” Kate said. “To take critical investment in healthier product innovation to the next level, we’re calling on government to support the UK’s largest manufacturing industry in boosting further investment in reformulation.”

The FDF would like the UK government to provide a £4 million fund to support SMEs who want to “do the right thing”, Kate added, replicating the successful Scottish government-funded Reformulation for Health programme across the rest of Britain. “This scheme has proven itself to be a cost-effective way of supporting innovative projects that have removed millions of calories from Scottish food products in line with public health goals.”

In addition to reducing calories, sugar and salt, FDF members are leading efforts to promote positive nutrition, Kantar’s report states. The federation’s Action on Fibre initiative (launched in 2021) helps make high fibre choices more readily available to consumers across a range of products, from breakfast cereals to pizza. In 2023 members introduced 150 new and reformulated products which contributed 190 million additional servings of fibre to the UK population. Alongside new product launches, the food and drink industry is also helping shoppers to lead healthier lives by investing in workplace wellbeing programmes, and providing clearer nutritional labelling, Kantar’s research found.

With diet-related disease being linked to high levels of ill health in Britain, there is a responsibility for this kind of joined up thinking across manufacturing, government and retail, said Alan Black, director of food systems transformation at The British Nutrition Foundation.

“We know that reformulation can help reduce population intakes of nutrients of concern such as free sugars and salt, which could benefit public health outcomes. Increasing positive components in products such as fibre and fruit and vegetables and targeting portion size are also promising strategies for improving public health.”

Alan said food manufacturers are well positioned to deliver change at scale, and that the British Nutrition Foundation is working with companies across the sector to support them in making healthier choices easier for consumers. 

“This report provides a helpful snapshot of how companies are improving the health profile of a wide variety of food and drink,” added Jacinta George, managing director of Reading Scientific Services Ltd (RSSL), which is also working alongside businesses, helping them to navigate routes to more healthful products.

“We know that successful reformulation is multifaceted – it requires time and investment to change recipes and launch new healthier products,” she said, “It’s not as simple as removing ingredients or replacing them with alternatives - a deep technical understanding of the function of different ingredients is needed. This is because reformulation can influence every characteristic of a product, from processing and cost, through to taste, texture and shelf-life. The significance of these changes cannot be overstated or underestimated because the quality of the product is key to consumer acceptance. We hope this report will help inspire companies with what can be done, as well as help policy makers understand the depth of industry commitment.” 

Read the report, Innovation for Healthier Diets, here.