Make no mistake: the new Nutrient Profiling Model (2018NPM) will have a profoundly damaging impact on sales and consumption of foods high in essential nutrients, says PTF director General Rod Addy.
The Government sees the new approach as part of its plan to cut soaring rates of obesity and related diseases, such as Type 2 diabetes, cardiovascular disease, strokes and some cancers. This is part of a 10-year strategy to prevent diseases before they occur and save the National Health Service billions of pounds worth of healthcare costs.
The reclassification system
The new point-scoring system will replace the total sugars threshold at 21% of food energy with a much stricter free sugars threshold, at 5% of total dietary energy, making it much more difficult to pass for products that are sweetened, if only by a small amount. In addition, the 2018 model makes it harder to score points for protein, meaning that even some whole drinking milk will now fail and be classed as ‘less healthy’.
The 2018 NPM takes nutrients into account but still focuses substantially on ‘bad’ or ‘unhealthy’ ingredients, such as sugar, salt and saturated fat. However, it continues to ignore the importance of micronutrients, particularly calcium and iron, despite the evidence that our children’s diets are severely lacking in these nutrients and the potential impact on their future health.
Many trade associations and food companies, including the PTF, object to the new template because it does not adequately account for the benefits and importance of a range of positive nutrients in products. Nowhere is this seen more clearly than in the dairy category.
Problems for dairy
In dairy, the new system will reclassify hundreds, if not thousands of SKUs currently seen as healthy as ‘unhealthy’. Yogurts, in particular, will be badly hit, because they are sweetened. This feels unfairly punitive because, of all the dairy categories, according to objective evidence yogurt is the one that has been improved the most by processors’ voluntary reformulation efforts to reduce sugar content, and sugar levels are much lower than in alternatives. In addition, when it comes to free sugar consumption, and the contribution that sweetened dairy such as yogurt make, it is clear that yogurts are not the problem. Yogurts are not the cause of the obesity crisis and should not be penalised. Yogurt is a valuable, versatile and nutrient-dense lower calorie option. It also represents a ‘healthy’ alternative to many desserts and sweet snacks.
Not only have yogurt producers bent over backwards to make their products healthier, but their products are also a widely consumed source of protein and calcium in the diet.
Omissions in the NPM
Here’s where the 2018 NPM is in serious danger of creating unintended consequences. Protein and calcium are vital for children’s healthy skeletal and muscular development. They are also crucial for older consumers seeking to offset the effects of loss of muscle and bone density associated with old age, the impacts of which contribute to falls. This is significant because falls among the elderly lead to increased hospitalisation and expensive medical care.
The new NPM accounts for protein, but not the role of calcium or a host of other nutrients, such as phosphorus, also a contributor to bone health, and vitamin B12.
Why penalise products that are rich, ready and natural sources of essential nutrients, making them more expensive to produce by requiring yet more reformulation? Other products do not contain the same nutrient-dense profile, so there are no suitable substitutes that are consumed in anything like the same volumes.
Even if products underwent more reformulation, further evidence suggests consumers would only add honey, syrup or sugar to them anyway to offset taste.
In the case of cheese, a highly nutrient dense food, the vast majority fail the NPM, and will continue to fail regardless of any reformulation, given that cheese contains such high levels of nutrients, both good and bad. Is it right that this product, which is such a dense package of nutrients, should be placed in the same category as confectionery and fizzy drinks and treated as unhealthy? PTF doesn’t believe so and is fighting hard for an exemption.
The right approach to healthy eating?
In its efforts to encourage healthier eating, the Government is being overly reductionist in its approach and the result is something that cuts against common sense.
The reality is that healthy eating is not just about the ‘bad’ things in foods, but about lifestyle and over-consumption. It’s also about promoting consumption of vital essential nutrients such as protein and calcium.
For all these reasons, PTF supports a Government approach to defining a healthy food that puts more weight on the whole content of a food and thereby nudges consumers towards a diet in line with the Eatwell Guide.
The Provision Trade Federation (PTF) is a food trade association representing processing, manufacturing and trading companies. Rod Addy has extensive communications experience having worked on food trade press publications for more than 20 years. As director general of the PTF he has responsibility for the overall direction and strategy of the organisation.
