The government has set out plans to cut more than 100,000 tonnes of saturated fats from food products - but it will stop short of reviving FSA reformulation targets, The Grocer has learned.

Documents revealed by the DH this week set out a menu of options that it wants food companies to adopt under a new Responsibility Deal satfat reduction pledge.

Suppliers and retailers will be urged to agree to stripping out satfat with methods such as reducing portions, using lower-fat oils, substituting ingredients or using alternative technologies.

“Action to reduce levels in food must be universal,” said the DH, which claims the moves could prevent 2,600 premature deaths each year.

But it said plans for “detailed targets” had been dismissed in favour of allowing companies “greater flexibility”.

The FSA previously tried to produce industry targets on satfats, but these were shelved when the coalition launched the Responsibility Deal in March 2011.

The government highlighted progress already made by the industry on satfat, pointing to reformulation by companies including General Mills, Heinz and Mars, dating back as far as 2003.

But it warned that current efforts were unlikely to deliver the necessary reduction and called for “greater activity in existing areas and new activities”.

The DH is also urging retailers to “shift the marketing mix” in-store towards healthier choices, including offering loyalty rewards.

“By harnessing their creative powers, companies may be able to develop further options to change behaviour, for example taste tests in store and innovative use of loyalty cards,” it said.

health minister Anna Soubry was at a meeting earlier this month which approved the plans and said the industry’s reaction would influence whether the government was forced to consider other measures, including regulation.

“The minister wants to see the industry respond to this,” said a DH source. “She wants meaningful pledges across a whole range of foods. Otherwise the message is that she will consider other options.”

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