British food industry pledges to cut calories

British Health secretary Andrew Lansley proudly announced the combined
pledge of producers and distributors to help fight obesity, which is one
of the biggest health hazards in the country. “Over 60 per cent of adults and over a third of 10 and 11 year olds are
overweight or obese”, says the Department of Health, stating that
England has one of the highest rates of obesity in Europe – and indeed
of the whole world.

Joint efforts to tackle problems

The best way to tackle this problem is to prevent people from eating too
much, so major producers have pledged to reduce the amounts of calories
in their food products:

• Coca-Cola Great Britain will reduce its average amount of calories per litre by 5% – up to 30% for some brands.
• Mars will cap the calories per chocolate snack to 250 by the end of next year.
• Premier Foods will reduce calories in their existing brands and one in three newly introduced products will be “lower calorie choices”.

The major supermarket chains also have announced their efforts to cut the country’s calorie intake:

• Tesco will remove 1.8 billion calories from its soft drinks, expand its range of low-calorie meals and point customers to low-calorie options using “Green Ping” labels.
• Asda will introduce a new brand that will contain at least 30 per cent fewer calories than their normal “Chosen by you” brand.
• Morrisons will launch a range of over 300 healthier food products and a new labelling system.

Fastfood chain Subway joins the pledge with a commitment to offer five
“Low fat range subs” as part of their very popular £3 lunch offer.

Happy Health Secretary

“This pledge is just the start of what must be a bigger, broader
commitment from the food industry”, said Health Secretary Andrew
Lansley. “But it is a great step in the right direction and will help
million of us eat and drink fewer calories.”