The Food and Drink Federation's (FDF) members have cut the salt (18%), sugar (19%) and calories (17%) they contribute to the British grocery market by nearly a fifth in the last five years.
The UK Government's NPM – Nutrient Profiling Model – gives every food or drink a score, with a lower score indicating a healthier product. Since 2021, the NPM score of FDF members' products has improved by 13%, the organisation said.
FDF's latest Shaping a Healthier Future report suggests that this progress is thanks to decades of innovation and investment from food and drink manufacturers developing new healthier options for shoppers. As well as providing a range of healthy staples that support balanced diets, from tinned and frozen vegetables to oats and grains, food manufacturers have invested millions in developing new products, and adapting existing well-loved recipes to reduce salt, sugar and calories and add portions of fruit, vegetables and fibre.
Research from Nesta, the research and innovation foundation, shows that making simple swaps to healthier alternatives could halve obesity rates in the UK in five years.
The UK Government is currently proposing to change the rules, which will put much of this work at jeopardy, FDF says.
FDF is calling on government to pause plans to change the NPM, and instead bring forward at pace other proposals to make reporting of healthier food sales data mandatory across the food sector. It says this would require companies to publish standardised, consistent data, creating a transparent way of measuring progress towards healthier diets across companies and sales.
It described this as a “novel, world-first, approach which industry agrees will continue to incentivise companies to develop more, healthier options for shoppers while also supporting government efforts to evaluate health policies more effectively”. The scheme should be extended to hospitality venues too, FDF says.
Kate Halliwell, Chief Scientific Officer, The Food and Drink Federation (FDF), said:
“Food and drink manufacturers are committed to supporting consumers make healthier choices which will help improve diets. They've invested hundreds of millions of pounds over many years in changing products that shoppers know and love to make them healthier as well as appealing to shoppers. And this latest data shows that tremendous positive progress continues to be made.
“Now we need government support to take it to the next level. Maintaining a stable regulatory environment will give businesses the confidence they need to keep making investments in the development of healthier products. The UK is already a world leader in healthier product innovation, and bringing in mandatory reporting on healthier food sales would help to incentivise businesses of all sizes to go further, and build momentum on supporting healthier diets.”
