Less Salt & Sugar In Supermarkets - Heart Foundation Celebrates 15 Years Of Work With Food Companies

The Heart Foundation is celebrating the continuing impact of the food reformulation programme which has supported food companies to remove salt (sodium) and sugar levels from key food categories.

Some of the changes made by companies include a 25% sodium reduction in white bread, a 33% sodium reduction in certain breakfast cereals and reductions up to a 40% in the sugar levels of certain dairy products over the past 15 years.

Dave Monro, Chief Advisor Food and Nutrition at the Heart Foundation says; “Salt has been a strong focus since the beginning of the programme with research showing New Zealanders are consuming twice the recommended daily intake. Too much salt increases blood pressure and the risk of heart disease and stroke.

“We’ve seen dramatic improvements in some categories, with companies prioritising the changes in lower cost, leading selling products. For example, in the bread category 150 tonnes of salt per annum was removed from targeted white breads in one year. The pleasing thing is that all major companies within a food category are engaged and are reducing sodium levels in their lower cost, top selling breads,” Monro says.

Dave says a big contributor to our salt intake is the salt in many everyday foods like bread, sauces, cereals, and other convenience foods.

“Three quarters of the salt we consume comes from processed foods, so efforts to reformulate these products can bring significant health improvements.”

“We know that there can be many barriers to making healthier choices – such as perceived differences in taste, cost, and availability. So, the healthiness of low cost, commonly available, standard products is so important for bringing improvements to the heart health of New Zealand families.

The Heart Foundation’s food reformulation work began in 2007 with a focus on bread - the leading source of salt in the New Zealand diet. The organisation worked with food companies to set lower targets and support them to reformulate to meet those targets.

The approach used in the bread category was extended to other food categories. Significant reductions of salt in categories like corn flakes and puffed rice were achieved. Today, some of these cereals have around a third less salt than they did 12 years ago.

“These gradual improvements are bringing benefits to consumers, without them knowing,” he says, “Companies report no consumer detection because of the changes which have gradually reduced over time.”

The first sugar reduction targets were set in 2016 and there are now 13 sugar targets across nine categories, including products such as breakfast cereals, yoghurt, flavored milks, and tomato sauce. Progress has been really pleasing in a number of food categories like yoghurts and flavored milks where there have been reductions of between 25 – 40%.

Sandra McInnes, Regulatory Manager for Goodman Fielder says “Our company has been working with the Heart Foundation since the bread pilot programme and we see food reformulation as a key part of improving the nutritional value of our products and supporting people to have healthier diets.”

The Food reformulation work is supported with funding from the Ministry of Health.

ENDS

For more information on the food reformulation programme visit here

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