F&B companies call on UK government for mandatory healthy food sales reporting

Five major F&B manufacturers have introduced healthy sales reporting starting next year. The companies have pledged to publish healthy food sales data in a letter to the UK Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, while also calling on the government to work with the industry and implement a mandatory reporting system for F&B businesses in the country. 

If adopted, the move would mark the UK as the first country globally to introduce mandatory healthy food sales reporting across the food system. It would also be a transparent way of consistently tracking the progress toward healthier diets. Initiators of the reporting include Carlsberg Britvic, Danone North Europe, KP Snacks, Nomad Foods, and Premier Foods.

“We share the government’s ambition to improve diets across the country, and we believe that the data and transparency that reporting will bring will incentivize companies to double down on progress, and give the government a valuable tool to measure the impact of health policies,” says Karen Betts, chief executive at The Food and Drink Federation, UK.

“Food and drink manufacturers have a strong track record of making everyday foods better for us, and we’re determined to keep that progress going. That’s why we’re not waiting for regulation, but starting to report now on data that companies already hold,” she says. 

“In this way, this group of early-movers can test the best ways to collate and report data to support our broader sector and government in informing any future legislation.” 

Shared ambition

The letter starts by stating that the F&B industry shares the ambition of the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care to reduce obesity rates in the UK and for the population to eat healthier diets.

The companies say they have also restricted advertising for less healthy and HFSS foods.“Our industry has invested hundreds of millions of pounds here in the UK to develop healthier food and drink. As a result, our members’ products now contain 19% less sugar, 18% less salt, and 17% fewer calories than they did five years ago, and this builds on steady progress since the early 2000s to reduce fat, salt, and sugar and increase fruit, vegetables, and fiber in everyday food and drink that people regularly enjoy,” it states. 

In addition to changes in recipes, the companies say they have also restricted advertising for less healthy foods and those high in fat, sugar, and salt (HFSS). Although the HFSS regulations are still at an early stage, improvements in consumer purchasing of healthy products have been observed, according to the companies.

“We believe that the introduction of mandatory healthy food sales reporting for all large food and drink businesses is critical to support this progress. It will provide consistent data and evidence to inform future policymaking, as well as an incentive to encourage continued investment in healthier food and drink across the industry,” states the letter.

Ahead of mandatory regulations

The five companies state that at their own initiative, they will voluntarily begin to publish healthy food sales data from 2027 onwards, before any mandatory requirement has been set.

The reporting will follow the Nutrient Profiling Modeling score, the same model supporting the HFSS regulations and serving as the country’s primary nutritional benchmark. The model is already implemented into business systems and may therefore help industry players with reporting at pace, without needing any new methodologies that require government approval.

The reporting will follow the Nutrient Profiling Modeling score.“There is ambition to introduce reporting across food and drink manufacturing, and we look forward to building this initiative further as we welcome more companies and other parts of the food system into it. We expect the number of early adopters to grow as manufacturers iron out complex challenges, such as how to reflect mergers and acquisitions or split out UK-specific reporting from current global reporting commitments,” the companies state in the letter.

Nick Brown, director of Environment, Social and Governance, Premier Foods, stresses that food companies can play a major role in improving the health credentials of the products they make and sell, from launching healthier products to evolving existing recipes to make them healthier, and being responsible about the products that are being marketed and sold.

“Through disclosure, we have the opportunity to demonstrate the progress we are making and where further progress can be achieved, which is why we are proud to have already disclosed against metrics aligned to the UK Government’s Food Data Transparency Partnership.”