PHE reveals guidelines for reducing 200,000 tonnes of sugar per year

Public Health England (PHE) gas published guidelines for its sugar reduction programme, which could see 200,000 tonnes of sugar removed from the UK market per year by 2020.

The nine food categories in the programme are: breakfast cereals; yogurts; biscuits; cakes; morning goods like croissants; puddings; ice creams, lollies and sorbets; confectionery (chocolate and sweet); and sweet spreads, including chocolate spread, peanut butter, dessert toppings/sauces and fruit spreads.

It is hoped the programme will encourage the food industry to innovate to lower children’s sugar intake.

The news comes after one of the main commitments in the government’s Childhood Obesity Plan included reducing the amount of sugar in food by five per cent by August 2017 and overall by 20 per cent by 2020.

It suggests three approaches the food industry can take to reduce sugar are: reformulating products to lower the levels of sugar present; reducing the portion size, and/or the number of calories in single-serve products; and shifting consumer purchasing towards lower or no added sugar products.

According to a statement from PHE, the body will judge the success of the sugar reduction programme by measuring the net amount of sugar removed from key food categories. The principles are to encourage the industry to go further and faster in sugar reduction in order to improve health outcomes, but also to give it flexibility in how it meets the government’s challenge

Duncan Selbie, chief executive of PHE, said: “The UK has one of the most innovative food sectors in the world and it’s in everyone’s best interests to ensure it remains a dynamic and thriving sector of our economy. The scale of our ambition to reduce sugar is unrivalled anywhere in the world, which means the UK food industry has a unique opportunity to innovate and show the rest of the world how it can be done. I believe reducing sugar in the nation’s diet will be good for health and ultimately good for UK food business.”

“We can’t duck the fact a third of children are leaving primary school overweight or obese and obesity generally is having a profound effect, not just on the costs for the health service, but on the overall health of the nation. Our economy is affected as obesity can lead to long term health problems that result in time off work.”