In a letter to the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, Danone North Europe, KP Snacks, Carlsberg Britvic, Nomad Foods and Premier Foods plc have pledged to publish healthy food sales data, calling on Government to work with industry to implement a mandatory reporting system for all food and drink businesses in this parliament.
The Food and Drink Federation (FDF) said that the move would make the UK the first country in the world to introduce mandatory healthy food sales reporting across the food system and provide a “consistent, transparent way of tracking progress towards healthier diets”.
The signatories underscore that to meet this “rapid timescale”, manufacturers will need to use the current Nutrient Profiling Model, which is used for existing High Fat, Sugar and Salt restrictions. This is because the complexities associated with the more recent Model would mean they’d need to develop a new set of measurements which would delay reporting.
Karen Betts, chief executive of FDF, said: “We share the Government’s ambition to improve diets across the country, and we believe that the data and transparency that reporting will bring will incentivise companies to double down on progress, and give Government a valuable tool to measure the impact of health policies.
“Food and drink manufacturers have a strong track record of making everyday foods better for us, and we’re determined to keep that progress going. That’s why we’re not waiting for regulation, but starting to report now on data that companies already hold. In this way, this group of early-movers can test the best ways to collate and report data to support our broader sector and Government in informing any future legislation.”
“The more we collectively measure and share, the easier it is to see what’s working.”
Richard Hall, vice president general secretary, Danone North Europe, stated: “At Danone, we believe transparency is one of the best ways to drive progress on health and have long chosen to go beyond mandatory health and nutrition reporting requirements. We welcome this group, which will play an important role in driving greater transparency and consistency in the wider food system. The more we collectively measure and share, the easier it is to see what’s working, where barriers remain and the opportunities to accelerate progress towards better health outcomes.”
Nick Brown, director of environment, social and governance at Premier Foods, said: “Food companies can play a major role in improving the health credentials of the products they make and sell, from launching new healthier products, evolving existing recipes to make them healthier and being responsible about how we market and sell our products.
“Through disclosure, we have the opportunity to demonstrate the progress we are making and where further progress can be achieved, which is why we are proud to have already disclosed against metrics aligned to the UK Government’s Food Data Transparency Partnership”
