The importance of hfss to consumers, retailers and our public health service

#hfss has been around for over a month and we've spoken lots about the impact to specific industry sectors, but less so about the importance to consumers.

Given that we're in the 'salty snacks' category, we thought we'd sit down with Sonia Pombo, RNutr (Public Health) from Action on Salt and why it's a necessary legislation for our diets.

Diving straight in....

1. Within retail categories impacted by the #hfss regulations, which area of food needs to see the biggest change?

SP: Restrictions in advertising and promotion of HFSS foods are a great opportunity to encourage reformulation and drive businesses into producing and selling foods lower in salt, fat and sugar. The locations restrictions in particular will hopefully incite change in the snacking industry. These products are typically seen in prominent positions in store, and are designed to entice you into buying foods that you hadn’t set out to buy in the first place. Retailers rely on an individual’s impulse to buy these products, which are often calorie dense and nutrient poor.

2. Why are the HFSS regulations important to both consumers & retailers?

SP: Our environment is flooded with cheap, unhealthy, heavily processed food and billions of pounds is spent on marketing and advertising to make sure it plays a starring role in all our minds.

HFSS food and drink contribute heavily to poor diets and their associated health outcomes – raised blood pressure, increased risk of suffering from cardiovascular diseases, obesity, type 2 diabetes and cancers. This all puts a huge strain on the NHS and impacts the workforce

Reducing exposure and subsequent consumption of these unhealthy foods will therefore improve health, save the NHS and boost the economy.

We need supermarkets and food companies to recognise their role in this, and put our health before their profits, by changing the food environment so that the healthier choice is the easier choice for all.

3. What’s the impact of too much salt in someone’s diet?

SP: Evidence has shown that regularly eating too much salt puts us at increased risk of developing high blood pressure. High blood pressure is the main cause of strokes and a major cause of heart attacks and heart failures, the most common causes of death and illness in the world. It’s is also linked to increased risk of kidney disease, osteoporosis and stomach cancer. Salt reduction is internationally recognised as the simplest and most cost effective approach to improving public health.

We are all eating too much salt, which may come as a surprise to most – the UK recommendation is a maximum of 6g/day (about a level teaspoon) but we are currently eating over 40%, at 8.4g/day.

4. Which categories of food & drink often have the most hidden salt levels?

SP: Salt is hidden in most foods. In fact, over three quarters of the salt in our diet is added by the food industry. This is why the food industry play such an important role here – this salt cannot be removed by the consumer, so simply telling people to eat less salt will not work when our food is full of it.

Major contributors of salt in the UK diet include foods that don’t typically taste salty – bread for example is the number 1 contributor of salt to our diets. This is followed by meat products (bacon, ham, sausages) and cheese. Recent evidence has also shown savoury snacks to have a significantly high salt content

The out of home sector is also likely a very big contributor to our salt, although not and strictly monitored as the packaged food industry. In recent years we have seen exponential growth in the takeaway sector, and restaurant and takeaway food are typically high in calories, saturated fat and salt compared to shop bought or home cooked meals.

5. What are your top tips for reducing salt intake?

• Slowly reduce the amount of salt you use while cooking - your taste buds will adapt
• Use herbs, spices, lemon, garlic and fresh chilli when cooking to add flavour in place of salt
• Drain and rinse canned vegetables and beans if they are stored in salted water!
• Check food labels to check salt levels and choose the lower salt option. No nutrition levels? Write to the manufacturer to ask why!
• Take salt shakers and salty sauces off the table so younger family members don't develop the habit of adding salt to their food
• Use the FREE FoodSwitch app to scan the barcodes of your food and drink products to instantly see whether they are high (red), medium (amber) or low (green) in fat, saturates, sugars and salt per 100g. It also searches the database for similar but healthier alternative products, making it easier than ever to switch to healthier food choices

6. How can we tell if something is high/low in salt?

SP: It’s not always clear if something is high in salt, as foods don’t always taste salty! Best way to know is to look at the nutrition labels on packaging – high salt foods contain >1.5g salt in 100g, or >1.8 in a portion. Some foods display this clearly on front of pack with colour coded labels to let you know if its high, medium or low in salt, but this isn’t currently mandatory.

When eating out, not many restaurants display this information on the menu, but might have the information available online. Alternatively look out for salty ingredients on the description – cured meats, cheese and olives for example will add a significant amount of salt to your dish, as will seasoned sides. Opt for more vegetables to give yourself a nutritious kick without the added salt.

7. Are you tracking success of HFSS in any way

We are monitoring the food industry’s progress towards achieving the salt reduction targets for 2024. Salt reduction has been a feature of UK food policy for nearly 20 years, albeit under a voluntary system. A key difference with the latest wave of policies to tackle the food environment is their legislation. Enforcing restrictions on the advertisement and promotion of HFSS food and drink has been a real driver to industry reformulation; in recent months we have seen announcements from various food companies on new non-HFSS product launches, for categories of food that have previously been thought to be ‘challenging’. This demonstrates just how quickly manufacturers can change their recipes when they are given no alternative. 

We're consistently tracking the impact on hfss within our category and overall retail so keep popping back for updates. https://www.actiononsalt.org.uk/

Our whole range of triple cooked premium potato crisps are non-hfss. Just saying.

#food #health #hfss