Four major food companies are to join Premier Foods by introducing reporting on the proportion of their food that is defined as healthy, The Grocer can reveal.
Carlsberg Britvic, Danone North Europe, KP Snacks and Nomad Foods said they were making the move in the hope the government would finally push ahead with delayed plans to bring in mandatory reporting to improve transparency on health.
The announcement is being made on the eve of The Grocer’s Health Summit in London, at which food industry bosses will call for ministers to step up moves to bring in mandatory reporting for major food companies to encourage a new wave of reformulation.
The companies and FDF CEO Karen Betts have written to health secretary Yvette Cooper to say the introduction of reporting is “critical” to support other regulations such as the junk food promotions ban and advertising restrictions.
Premier Foods, which is also among the signatories, revealed in June that it was pushing ahead with healthy food reporting, rather than waiting for the government to bring forward its delayed proposals.
The letter to Cooper said mandatory reporting would provide “consistent data and evidence to inform future policymaking, as well as an incentive to encourage continued investment in healthier food and drink across industry”.
However, the move is set to encounter controversy. The companies are calling on the health secretary to base the new reporting model on the 2004 nutrient profiling model, which the government has pledged to replace with a new 2028 model with far stricter guidelines on what food counts as HFSS – and which would redefine many of the companies’ products as unhealthy.
Read more: Is Premier Foods’ healthy food sales reporting as progressive as it seems?
The signatories emphasised that to meet the rapid timescale, manufacturers would need to use the current NPM, because the complexities associated with the more recent model meant they would need to develop a new set of measurements, which would delay reporting.
Health campaign groups, while supporting the introduction of mandatory reporting, have urged ministers not to back down to industry calls to shelve the new NPM, warning it would risk jeopardising the “obesity moonshot” announced under Wes Streeting’s 10-year plan last summer.
The government has tasked the FSA with drawing up the new system of mandatory reporting, which would be based on a system negotiated with major supermarkets and suppliers by the Food Data Transparency Partnership (FDTP).
However, controversy over the impact of the new NPM, which companies argue would jeopardise hundreds of millions spent in reformulation and lead to many reformulated products being delisted or banned from promotion and advertising, has led to delays.
The letter to Cooper states: “Reporting by these companies will be based on the current nutrient profiling model score – the model which underpins the HFSS regulations.
“Using this model will enable industry to achieve reporting at pace as it is already implemented into business systems and does not require new methodologies to be agreed with government.”
Richard Hall, VP and general secretary at Danone North Europe, said: “We believe transparency is one of the best ways to drive progress on health and have long chosen to go beyond mandatory health and nutrition reporting requirements.
“We welcome this group, which will play an important role in driving greater transparency and consistency in the wider food system.
“The more we collectively measure and share, the easier it is to see what’s working, where barriers remain and the opportunities to accelerate progress towards better health outcomes.”
FDF CEO Betts told The Grocer: “We share the government’s ambition to improve diets across the country, and we believe that the data and transparency that reporting will bring will incentivise companies to double down on progress, and give government a valuable tool to measure the impact of health policies.
“Food and drink manufacturers have a strong track record of making everyday foods better for us, and we’re determined to keep that progress going.
“That’s why we’re not waiting for regulation, but starting to report now on data that companies already hold. In this way, this group of early movers can test the best ways to collate and report data to support our broader sector and government in informing any future legislation.”
In June Mr Kipling owner Premier Foods announced it was going it alone on health reporting, although critics claimed the move was in part aimed at putting pressure on ministers to drop the introduction of the tougher NPM goalposts.
However, Premier’s director of environment, social and governance Nick Brown said: “Food companies can play a major role in improving the health credentials of the products they make and sell.
“Through disclosure, we have the opportunity to demonstrate the progress we are making and where further progress can be achieved, which is why we are proud to have already disclosed against metrics aligned to the UK government’s Food Data Transparency Partnership.”
Obesity Health Alliance (OHA) executive director Katharine Jenner said: “A few companies offering to voluntarily report what they themselves consider to be ‘their healthy sales’ is a positive signal, but as always, it’s important to read the small print.
“Nothing should be ruled out at this stage – these companies should be prepared to work cooperatively with government, and to update what they report on once an open and fair consultation process has concluded what a proportionate and evidence‑based approach looks like. This could include using the new Nutrient Profiling Model, which is based on the latest NHS dietary advice, rather than the old model developed more than 20 years ago.
“The OHA wants to see a level playing field across all large businesses, with comparable, metrics that tell us something meaningful about what is being sold to us and pave the way to set targets to improve the healthiness of sales. That means using credible measures that go beyond a single headline NPM figure, are standardised across all businesses, independently verified and transparent, and can expose inequalities in what is being sold to families on lower incomes, particularly given that childhood obesity is twice as prevalent in the most deprived areas.
“We urge the government to publish the consultation swiftly, so reporting can begin from next year.”
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