New data from Kantar Worldpanel confirms that food and drink manufacturers have significantly reduced the levels of salt, sugar, and calories in their products following years of investment.
The Food and Drink Federation (FDF) noted that its members’ products now have around a third less salt (31%) and sugar (30%) and a quarter (24%) fewer calories compared to a decade ago.
The data is contained in its new ‘Shaping a healthier future through food and drink’ report, which illustrates the wide variety of products that manufacturers are producing to help people achieve more balanced diets.
In 2024 alone, food and drink manufacturers invested around £180m in healthier product innovation. This includes modifying recipes to reduce sugar, calories and salt, developing new healthier products, and changing portion sizes. Examples offered by the FDF include:
- Brands are helping make it easier for people to eat more servings of vegetables and grains. More than half of the Ben’s Original and Dolmio’s ready-to-eat meal range provides at least one portion of vegetables. Meanwhile, Bird’s Eye’s new ‘Steamfresh’ range has added over 3.5 million additional portions of vegetables to the nation’s plates since its launch under than a year ago.
- PepsiCo has transformed its Doritos products to reduce the amount of salt and fat by 18% and 14% respectively. This followed a £13m investment in R&D and new machinery to make changes to the cooking process and recipe.
While food and drink manufacturers will continue to play their part, FDF is calling for the government to take “bold, coordinated action across the whole food system to rethink how we support the shift to healthier diets, building on existing policies”. This includes mandatory reporting on the sales of healthier and less healthy products across manufacturing, retail and hospitality. It also means taking a more consistent approach to health policy across the entire food chain, ensuring consumers have access to the same, clear information that helps them to make healthier choices, no matter where they’re eating.
Additionally, with 41% of food and drink manufacturers compelled to scale back investment as they grapple with rising production costs and regulatory pressures, the FDF stated that the government must open more R&D funding and science support to the food sector to sustain investment in healthier products. This includes bolstering existing R&D tax credits, grants and capital allowance schemes.
The trade body is also calling on the UK Government to support small and medium-sized businesses (SMEs) in developing healthier products by replicating the Scottish government’s successful ‘Reformulation for Health’ programme. It is claimed that a fund of as little as £4m to offer this scheme across the UK would transform SMEs’ ability to engage in healthier product innovation by mitigating costs and creating a network of expertise and support.
“Food and drink manufacturers are playing a quiet but vital role in helping people achieve balanced diets amid the pressures of busy lives. Companies have made major progress in slashing the calories, salt and sugar in everyday food and drink – making the food people love better for them, alongside hugely expanding the range of healthy options,” said Karen Betts, Chief Executive of the FDF.
“But tackling poor diets and lifestyles is a complex issue and needs a more joined-up approach. We’re calling on the government today to work in a more structured partnership with the entire food industry to deliver change. It has a clear opportunity to do this in its upcoming Food Strategy, where we hope to see health policies that support industry to go further, and are consistent across existing regulation and across all parts of the sector. Rethinking this challenge, with holistic and coordinated action, will help us truly move the needle on this critical health challenge.”
