The Food and Drink Federation (FDF) has asked that Government provide further funding for product reformulation, as its member companies reduce salt content by a third.

Data from Kantar Worldpanel has revealed that products from FDF member companies now contribute 33% less salt, 25% less sugar and 24% less calories to the GB grocery market compared to 2015.

FDF highlighted that in 2023 alone, more than £160 million was invested in research and development dedicated to healthier product innovation, including reformulation, creating new, healthier products and changing portion sizes.

Kate Halliwell, chief scientific officer at the FDF, said: “Creating delicious and nutritious food and drink is no easy task – it takes time, investment and technical expertise. We’re proud to see the continued and significant advances made by our industry to offer healthier options reflected in the UK’s shopping baskets.  

“The industry, and in particular smaller companies, could do even more with better Government support, which is currently only a fraction of what’s available to, for example, investments in the aerospace or automotive manufacturing sectors. To take critical investment in healthier product innovation to the next level, we’re calling on Government to support the UK’s largest manufacturing industry in boosting further investment in reformulation.  

“In addition, given the challenges smaller companies face in overcoming the complexity of reformulating products, we’re calling on the UK Government to provide a £4 million fund to support SMEs who want to do the right thing, replicating the very successful Scottish Government-funded Reformulation for Health programme across the whole of the UK. This scheme has proven itself to be a cost-effective way of supporting innovative projects that have removed millions of calories from Scottish food products in line with public health goals.”

Reformulation to “promote positive nutrition”

As well as supporting Government initiatives to reduce calories, sugar and salt, FDF members are also looking to “promote positive nutrition”. FDF’s ‘Action on Fibre’ initiative, launched in 2021, aims to make higher-fibre choices more accessible to consumers across a wide range of products.

In 2023, FDF said members of ‘Action on Fibre’ had introduced over 150 new and reformulated products, reportedly bringing 190 million additional servings of fibre to the UK population.

Alan Black, director of the Food Systems Transformation, The British Nutrition Foundation said: “With diet-related disease linked to significant levels of ill health in the UK we have a responsibility to work together across the food environment to make it better.

“We know that reformulation can help reduce population intakes of nutrients of concern such as free sugars and salt, which could benefit public health outcomes. Increasing positive components in products such as fibre and fruit and vegetables and targeting portion size are also promising strategies for improving public health.”