The UK’s Food and Drink Federation (FDF) today (22 June) rounded on public health watchdog NICE after the NHS body called for manufacturers to work harder to make the food they sell healthier.
NICE, the National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence, this morning called for the UK food industry to eliminate trans fats from food and to further reduce the salt and saturated fats.
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The report calls for a ban on trans-fats in the UK to save “tens of thousands” of lives by producing healthier food.
However, Julian Hunt, director of communications at the FDF, said he was surprised that NICE had found “the time and money” to develop guidance that was “out of touch with the reality” of the work the food industry had made on making food healthier.
“The food industry is leading the world when it comes to voluntarily changing the recipes of popular food brands so that they are lower in salt, fat or sugar; introducing better-for-you choices at the same price as standard lines; and improving the quality of nutrition information available on packs,” Hunt said.
“The new government has rightly made public health its top priority and has already set out a clear vision of its priorities in this area – including how it wants to create even more momentum behind industry’s voluntary actions. We look forward to working with new ministers, and other stakeholders, to bring that work to life in a way that makes a real difference for consumers,” he added.
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By GlobalDataThe NICE guidance, which urges the Government and the food industry to “take action” to prevent uneccessary deaths related to heart disease, calls for a cut in the recommended level of salt that should be consumed each day from a target of 6g per day per adult by 2015 to 3g daily by 2025.
The guidance also aims to encourage manufacturers to “substantially” reduce hidden saturated fat in all food products; ensure low-salt products and foods low in saturated fat are sold more cheaply than their higher content equivalents; and eliminate trans fats from processed food and take-aways.
In 2008 the Scientific Advisory Committee on Nutrition (SACN) advised that the maximum average intake of trans fats should be no more than 2% of a person’s total food energy. However, at present, no legal limit has been implemented.
A spokesperson for the Food Standards Agency (FSA) told just food: “There is no limit at the moment on the amount of trans-fats you can put in a product and that’s obviously what the NICE report is calling for. [Manufacturers] have to label it as hydrogenated vegetable oil but that’s the point that I think NICE is getting at, that there should be [a limit].”
She added: “We did a review of trans-fats in 2007 and the results are that people’s intake of trans-fat is actually very low and that saturated fat is far more of a problem.”
The FSA said the NICE report is “complex and wide-ranging” and that it is currently consider the details of the recommendations.
It added: “The NICE report was commissioned by the Department of Health. Ministers will therefore be considering and responding to this initially on behalf of the new coalition government.”
