Improving the health of Scotland
Scottish food and drink businesses have removed hundreds of millions of calories and tonnes of salt from the nation's diet with the support of FDF Scotland’s Reformulation for Health Programme.
Levels of obesity across the UK are too high. Over 1 in 10 children are obese as they start school, and this increases to 1 in 4 by year 6. Obesity rates are over twice as high in the most deprived areas compared to the least. UK’s food and drink manufacturers are committed to supporting the UK Government’s ambition to halve childhood obesity by 2030.
FDF members demonstrate their commitment by investing in reformulation and healthier options; offering appropriate portion size options; and providing clear labelling. To help us, we need governments to use a proportionate, evidence-based policy framework. This must avoid costly new regulatory barriers or restrictions that threaten future investments and the launch of the very products we are being encouraged to make.
England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland all have plans to tackle obesity. We work with all the administrations, responding to key consultations and advising on how food manufacturers can help governments to tackle this problem.
Future milestones and updates
New Better Health Campaign launches
The Department of Health and Social Care has launched the Better Health campaign. The campaign for adults aims to motivate and support adults to achieve a healthy weight by eating more healthily and increasing levels of physical activity. They have various resources to support the campaign available on the website including an animation demonstrating six benefits of losing weight.
The children’s Better Health campaign launched on 10 January, focussing on the new NHS Food Scanner App which provides a simple solution to help families maintain a healthier diet. The app uses a Good Choice badge to help signpost people to healthier food and drinks in line with the government’s dietary recommendations for added sugar, saturated fat and salt.
Government announce launch of new health incentives pilot scheme
Today, the Government announced that the pilot launch of a new app to help people make positive changes to their diet and physical activity. The app will launch in January 2022, where users can wear wrist devices to generate personalised health recommendations including; step count, eating more fruit and vegetables and portion size. Users will then be able to unlock rewards, such as gym passes for their healthy behaviours. The announcement follows Sit Keith Mills’ work with the Department of Health and Social Care on health incentives. Sir Keith will continue to advise and support the Government through the pilot.
Out of Home Calorie Labelling Guidance Published
The Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC) has published the implementation guidance to calorie labelling in the out of home sector.
The guidance document illustrates how the provisions of The Calorie Labelling (Out of Home Sector) (England) Regulations 2021 (the Regulations) work and covers the businesses in scope, food in scope, displaying calorie information, calculating calorie content, enforcement and annexes detailing how calorie labelling can be used as part of a wider set of measures to provide healthier choices and tackle obesity.
The Regulations will come into force from 6 April 2022.
UK chosen to lead new Sugar and Calorie Reduction Network
The World Health Organisation (WHO) has chosen the UK to lead a new Sugar and Calorie Reduction network to take global action on sugar and calorie reduction. The Chief Medical Officer (CMO), Chris Whitty, announced the formation of the network. The UK has seen good progress in sugar reduction and will be using its world-leading expertise in domestic sugar and calorie reduction to support European countries.
The new network’s member states will share learning and technical expertise to encourage manufacturers to reformulate products, reducing the amount of sugar and calories in food and drink. The WHO Sugar and Calorie Reduction Network will launch in spring 2022. Find out more
News
Government delays volume promotions and advertising ban
The Government is to delay a ban on multi-buy promotions and advertising on food and drink products for 12 months due to the “unprecedented” squeeze on living standards.
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Report: Celebrating Food and Nutrition
07 April 2022
The Food and Drink Federation has published its 'Celebrating Food and Nutrition' report, showcasing the work of UK food and drink manufacturers to support the nation's health by improving the nutritional status of their products and offering consumers a wide variety of options to support sustainable, balanced diets.
Read moreRelated topics
Food and drink promotions
The FDF believes food and drink promotions bring varied and significant benefits to consumers, retailers and manufacturers.
Sustainable healthy diets
All sectors of the food industry have a role to support a transition towards more sustainable healthy diets. The FDF is working with members to consider what this means for food and drink manufacturers.
Reformulation and portion size
Reformulation, new product development and portion sizing are key actions for food and drink manufactures in the fight against obesity.