Food Company's Story - about GDAs
Jonathan Horrell, Corporate Affairs Director,
UK and Ireland, Kraft Foods
At Kraft we continually
develop our business to
meet consumers' needs
and their expectations
of our products.
A brand such as Dairylea, for
example, is made from cheese and milk,
and provides children with a good source of calcium.
In fact, all Dairylea processed cheese1 products provide
1/3 of a child's reference nutrient intake (RNI) for
calcium and many are fortified with vitamin D to help
with calcium absorption.
To further enhance Dairylea's contribution to the diet
we have made numerous nutritional improvements over
the past 10 years, with a focus on reducing salt, fat,
and saturated fat where it is possible to do so. Ongoing
consumer research and insight from talking to mums
has informed this evolution.
Communicating these benefits is vital to our success,
and GDA labels on the front of our packs help shoppers
see clearly what's inside the products we supply. This in
turn helps people make healthier choices, in line with
Government's obesity strategy set out in its report
“Healthy weight, healthy lives”.
For example, in the past 18 months alone we have:
- Sept '08: re-launched Dairylea Light Slices with an
18% salt and 14% fat reduction (since '06)
- Nov '07: re-launched Dairylea Slices with a 13%
salt reduction (since '06)
GDA labels are effective at communicating these
changes to consumers – when the amount of calories,
fat, sugar or salt changes, so does the number on the
front of the pack.
Had we adopted traffic light labels,
we would actually obscure the facts about improved
nutrition. Traffic lights would, therefore, reduce the
incentive for us to look for step-by-step changes, even
though these are worth it in their own right and can
add up to major changes over time.
Dairylea 25g light slices
Dairylea 25g light slices - Post reformulation
GDA labels clearly communicate that the salt and fat
content has been reduced in this product. On a traffic
light label, the colours have remained the same and so
do not indicate the salt and fat reduction.
Reformulation is a continuous process and we persist
in pushing the boundaries to reduce salt, fat, and
saturated fat further, and sometimes we have pushed
too far.
A good example of this lies with our Dairylea
Stripcheese product, re-launched with a new recipe –
21% fat reduction, 24% less saturated fat, and 18%
less salt – in June 2007. Consumers did not like the new
recipe, taste-related complaints increased and so we
reverted to the original recipe. This experience illustrates
how great taste must always be our top priority.
A Dairylea cheese triangle has fewer calories and less
fat and saturated fat than the same amount of mature
cheddar, and more sugars and salt, yet both products
receive the same traffic light colours, which could easily
confuse an at-a-glance shopper.
Dairylea 20g cheese triangle
| Calories |
Sugars |
Fat |
Saturates |
Salt |
|
48
|
1.1g
|
3.9g
|
2.7g
|
0.5g
|
|
3%
|
1%
|
6%
|
13%
|
10%
|
| Percent of Child GDA |
Mature cheddar 20g cheese chunk
| Calories |
Sugars |
Fat |
Saturates |
Salt |
|
82
|
<0.1g
|
7.0g
|
4.4g
|
0.4g
|
|
4%
|
0%
|
10%
|
22%
|
7%
|
| Percent of Child GDA |
Using traffic lights, consumers will find it difficult to
spot the option with lower saturated fat. Likewise, for
companies there is limited incentive to review product
nutrition if a product with a one-third reduction in
saturated fat carries the same red 'no go' label.
The Food Standards Agency has commended Kraft for
its efforts in reformulating Dairylea products. But these
efforts would be hindered rather than helped if we
were to use Multiple Traffic Lights (MTL) labels.
The formula used to determine the colour coding is
based on an analysis of a 100g portion size, which
can result in significant anomalies when assessing
foods such as cheese triangles that are consumed in
smaller portions.
Like many other companies, Kraft is committed to a
variety of health and wellness initiatives, including
reformulating our products in our standard, as well as
better-for-you, ranges. We use consumer insights and
research to guide our product development and we
seek to provide consumers with product choices that fit
into their lives.
To support this work, we have long advocated a simple
system of front-of-pack food labelling. From the
perspective of Dairylea and our marketplace, for people
who want to select healthier foods and the companies
that want to make them, GDA labels provide better
encouragement to reformulate and are more effective
at signposting healthier options within categories.
Kraft is one of 72 companies that have now
opted to use GDA labels. These companies produce
over 20,000 food and drinks lines, and their details are
filed in the appendices.
About Jonathan
Jonathan Horrell is Kraft Foods'
Corporate Affairs Director, UK and Ireland. He has
responsibility for external and internal communications,
issues management and community involvement.
He has been at Kraft since 2003 and has managed
communications programmes supporting the
company's introduction of coffees from Rainforest
Alliance Certified farms to the UK and Ireland, including
media relations and stakeholder engagement. He also
leads Kraft's UK & Ireland communications and public
affairs initiatives.
Jonathan previously worked in the UK
dairy industry, as head of communications at First Milk
a £500-million farmer owned milk business with
interests in milk distribution, processing and marketing.
Between 1990 and 1994 Jonathan worked as a
journalist on a variety of IT and finance titles.
More information
References
- Dairylea Bites is not legally defined as a “processed cheese” product;
it is a “cheddar processed cheese”. This means that we are not legally
able to add anything to the ingredients other than cheddar, water, and
emulsifying salts. So we are not able to fortify Bites with calcium and
vitamin D. Dairylea Cheddar Slices and Grated Cheddar are “natural
cheese” and therefore, again, we are not able to fortify them with
added calcium and vitamin D.