Last year, the UK government released details of its regulation restricting the promotion of HFSS products in England. It is the latest in a string of policies designed to encourage consumers to eat more healthily.
Many retailers are ahead of the legislation, taking the lead in driving changes that will support healthier eating and drinking habits. But are they the only ones who should be driving the healthy eating agenda?
Of course, retailers can and should play a crucial role. From having the final say on pricing to their ultimate control over the choice of products on offer to consumers, retailers have the tools to nudge consumers away from HFSS products and towards healthier alternatives.
Likewise, food and drink manufacturers have taken steps, particularly around reformulation and portion control. But there is still room for our industry to go further in supporting people to make healthier choices.
Consumer demand for healthy products is strong. Research commissioned by Danone UK & Ireland revealed 94% of UK consumers try to eat healthily and pay attention to the food they eat all or at least some of the time. Furthermore, that research showed fat and sugar levels were the first thing consumers checked on labels, meaning HFSS regulations are in step with consumer understanding of what constitutes a healthy product.
The power of this legislation is clear. In the first month of restrictions on the location of HFSS products, Kantar reported the amount of sugar, saturated fats and salt sold in the UK had declined by 8%, 6.4% and 5.7% respectively compared with the year before.
With clear consumer demand for healthy options and a regulatory environment open to supporting this, now is the perfect opportunity for the sector to improve the health and nutrition of its products.
It is for this reason at Danone UK & Ireland we have announced a series of new health commitments across our dairy, plant-based and waters portfolios. We are committing to at least 90% of our portfolio being non-HFSS, according to current government regulation. And we commit to never produce a product for children that is HFSS.
We believe it is important for companies to take action like this to ensure the overall healthiness of their product portfolio, catering for consumer and retailer demand to make healthy choices easier.
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