Healthy eating

The provision of food and drink is frequently characterised by the media in negative terms. There is no doubt that in developed countries we grapple with public health issues associated with calorie-rich diets and declining levels of physical activity, while in most developing nations people still suffer from a lack of widely available food and poor nutrition.

However, this picture belies the enormous achievement of the food industry to provide consistently affordable and nutritious food to millions of people all around the world. Likewise, it does not reflect the efforts under way to improve the nutrition profile of the food we produce, or the importance of that food to specific groups of people, including some of the most vulnerable members of society.

In this section we have focused on activity currently under way in our businesses to:

• improve nutrition labelling;
• improve the nutrition profile of products, where appropriate;
• help people make better dietary choices; and
• ensure responsible marketing of products to children.

We support nutrition labelling that makes it clear how specific products contribute to a balanced diet. This helps people make informed decisions about the food they eat and to achieve a balanced diet.

Our grocery business in Australia, George Weston Foods, has made a commitment to implementing percentage Daily Intake thumbnails of nutrients on the front of pack across the entire product range, and this will include details about energy, fat, saturated fat, sugars and sodium content. Similarly, in the UK, our bread products all have a full nutrition table as well as a percentage Guideline Daily Amount (GDA) indicator for energy and key nutrients. GDA measures are used as a standard reference point on all our breakfast cereals, crispbreads and most cooking sauce products sold through retail outlets in the UK.

Around the world, our businesses regularly review the recipes of even our most popular brands in response to customer demand for lower salt, lower fat and lower calorie products. Effective product reformulation is not an easy process, as recipes need to be changed gradually to ensure that consumers continue to enjoy our products. Ingredients may also play an important part in the manufacturing process and removing them can present significant technical challenges. Salt, for example, plays an important part in bread making by helping to control fermentation in the dough, so when salt is removed it can impact product quality. Sugar also plays an important role in preventing the multiplication of bacteria in food, thereby protecting it from a range of food-borne pathogens. It is nevertheless important to rise to these technical challenges.

In the UK, Jordans removed all the salt from its products as part of its continuing nutrition improvement programme. Allied Bakeries also undertook a significant amount of work in 2009 to reduce further salt levels in its products to ensure they meet voluntary targets set by the UK Foods Standards Agency (UK FSA).

Our bakery business is also engaging with our retail customers on a programme to reduce saturated fat levels by a minimum of 10%. These changes will primarily require recipe reformulation for doughnuts, shortcrust pastry and garlic bread. We are investigating fat reduction technologies and hope to start projects early in 2011 with completion by mid 2012.

Since 2009, AB World Foods in the UK has undertaken an extensive programme to improve the recipes of some of its cooking sauces in its leading Patak’s and Blue Dragon ranges using the projected UK FSA salt and saturated fat reduction guidelines for 2012 as their target.

A new range of 16 curry paste products was launched in September 2009 with between 38% and 64% less salt than in the standard range and between 32% and 53% less fat. Other existing sauce products were reformulated and relaunched with between 4% and 42% less salt and 26% to 65% less fat. Salt levels in the Blue Dragon range were also reduced by between 30% and 80% and all artificial colourings, flavourings and preservatives were removed.

The basics of a healthy lifestyle are fairly straightforward: eat most things in moderation and take plenty of exercise. However, helping people understand what this actually means in practice can be complex. Our businesses support a range of initiatives to help people, young and old, to make well-informed decisions about their diets.

In the UK, we are members of the British Nutrition Foundation (BNF) and several of our businesses, including British Sugar and Jordans Ryvita, are active supporters. The BNF was established over 40 years ago and exists to deliver authoritative, evidence-based information on food and nutrition in the context of health and lifestyle. The Foundation’s education group helps to achieve its charitable objectives through its ‘Food – a Fact of Life’ education programme for schools. This programme communicates up-to-date, unbiased, consistent and accurate messages about food and nutrition to all those involved in education.

British Sugar also supports the UK Sugar Bureau which monitors international developments in nutritional science and provides an extensive repository of science-based data for journalists, health professionals and the public.

The partnership between the Mission Australia community charity and George Weston Foods ran from May 2007 to May 2010 and aimed to educate families about nutrition, healthy food preparation, budgeting and healthy lifestyle choices. This partnership relied on the expertise of family support workers, trained nutritionists, recreation/lifestyle professionals including culturally and linguistically diverse group leaders and peer educators. Mission Australia had delivered 115 nutrition programmes to 900 families across Australia by May 2010.

This year Bürgen was a major sponsor of a new collaborative men’s preventive health initiative in Australia, the M5 Project. This is a new plan aimed at breaking down the barriers that stop Australian men visiting a GP. Bürgen’s support of the M5 Project comes after years of research and development into the newly launched Bürgen Grains with Barley – the first and only Australian bread developed specifically with men’s health in mind. Led by the Royal Australian College of General Practitioners, the M5 Project teaches men five preventive steps they can take to look after their health – with the ultimate aim of decreasing the number of men dying from preventable illnesses.

In the UK, Kingsmill has also been leading the way in trying to alert consumers to the value of wholegrain in the diet. Nutritionists believe we should all be eating more wholegrain foods, but research shows that most people are eating less than they used to, and some are not eating any wholegrain at all. Although the UK FSA recommends that more wholegrain foods should be eaten, some countries make specific recommendations and in the US, 48g of wholegrain a day is recommended (2005 US Dietary Guidelines). This guideline has been used to show consumers how much of their recommended wholegrain requirement is provided by a serving of Kingsmill 50/50 and Tasty Wholemeal breads and rolls.

Wholegrain content of Kingsmill Tasty and Kingsmill 50/50.

How we engage children with food is one of the key questions faced by parents and food manufacturers all around the world. Globally, we manufacture only a very small number of products that are designed for children. However, our businesses are mindful of their responsibility to develop nutritious products for children and advertise them in way that does not promote an unhealthy diet.

Since its introduction in the 1950s, the Crusha brand has always appealed to children and, while parents are generally the main purchasers of the product, the core consumers of milkshakes are usually children aged between 4 and 12 years old.

Over recent years in the UK there has been considerable debate about how businesses should communicate responsibly with young audiences. In 2007 the UK advertising regulator, Ofcom, restricted advertising to children of products designated high in sugar but as we had already reformulated the Crusha product with no added sugar, we met the strict criteria set out within the new regulations. In addition, we voluntarily took the decision to stop all advertising on websites aimed specifically at children and to not knowingly contact any consumer under the age of 16 by email.