Food & Health Alliance

Susan Gallacher, Scottish Government - Update on National Food and Drink Policy

Doing nothing about the current state of health and diet in Scotland was not an option, Susan Gallacher, from the Scottish Government’s food and drink industry division, told her audience. ‘The agenda is compelling and change is inevitable,’ she said.

The government’s food and drink policy, Recipe for Success, had been launched earlier this year with the aim of promoting sustainable economic growth by addressing quality, health and well-being.

The policy focused on seven areas in particular:

• Supporting growth
• Healthy sustainable choices
• Building the country’s reputation as the land of food and drink
• Making the public sector an exemplar for procurement
• Ensuring food security and resilience
• Making sure food was affordable and available to all
• Helping people understanding more about the food they eat

She accepted that some people felt Recipe for Success didn’t go far enough and she acknowledged that the policy would continue to evolve and stimulate further debate.

The policy was already attracting worldwide attention but the government could not deliver this by itself. ‘Partnership working is key to its success.’

Discussions on the policy were happening with other government departments and this was gradually building a framework for delivery that would be submitted to the Leadership Forum.

The aim was to bring together economic, social and environmental strands for the benefit of health and well-being. A resilient economy, expanding communities and cuts in emissions would all have a knock-on effect on people’s health and well-being.

A healthy food and drink industry was vital to the economy and business and jobs in particular, Susan said. ‘To be sustainable this growth must address issues such as diet and the environment.’

Making links with industry was therefore fundamental to the policy. She was delighted that most supermarkets and convenience stores had now signed the Scottish Retailers’ Charter which commits them to delivering a greener, healthier and more affluent Scotland.

The government was also working with Lidl and Asda to spread the message. ‘We recognise that supermarkets have an important role to play in shaping food and health choices,’ she said. She was also pleased to see the progress of the Scottish Grocers Federation’s healthyliving programme.

Noting that some existing members of the Leadership Forum would be stepping down shortly, she said a new Leadership Forum would be helping to bring these different strands together and take things forward in 2010. The government would also be inviting education experts to join the forum.

The priorities for the future were to identify and agree targets for delivery and evaluation of the policy; develop a healthy and sustainable framework, discuss the need of whether further food advocacy is required and pursue new ways of communicating and joining up activities in Scotland. There would also be a national conference on the policy in 2010.

Susan Pryde, FSA Scotland - FSA Scotland’s approach to implementing the government’s policy

Scots’ average daily intake of salt has fallen by 0.9gm in the five years that the Food Standards Agency has been running its salt awareness campaign.

According to Susan Pryde, Branch Head of FSA Scotland, that equates to 6,000 fewer premature deaths and a £1.5bn saving to the economy through reduced treatment for the effects of high salt diets such as cardiovascular disease and strokes.

But, she added, the average intake in Scotland remains at 8.6gm - well above the recommended daily dose of 6gm. ‘To reach our 6gm target will need an awful lot more progress,’ she admitted.

A recently updated survey of Scottish diet showed that consumption of saturated fats and salt were still far too high across all economic groups. It was also clear that lower socio-economic groups were eating much less fruit and vegetables as well as oily fish.

The three principal strands of the campaign were raising consumer awareness, working with industry to reduce salt in manufactured food and attempting to introduce a voluntary nutritional labelling scheme to help consumer choice.

The campaign was now in its fourth phase, and was focusing on common products such as soups, bread, cereals and sauces that people might not realise contained salt.

In addition to making some inroads in reducing people’s salt intake, the FSA had also made significant progress in cutting salt levels in many food products, said Susan. There was, for instance, a 33% reduction in salt content in bread between 2004 and 2009. There had also been a 44% drop in sodium in breakfast cereals since 1998, 25-55% reductions in salt content of cakes, biscuits and snacks since 2006 (correct?), and a 30% fall in soups, sauces and some processed cheese between 2003 and 2005.

The FSA was also targeting the high levels of saturated fat in many food products as well as trying to agree more informative food labelling.

The campaign to reduce saturated fat began in February 2009 with the aim of removing the fat, rather than replacing it where possible (?) as well reducing the size of individual portions.

The agency was now consulting with the industry over the strategy relation to cakes, biscuits and snacks. A second consultation on meat and dairy products was due to be launched before the end of the year.

The FSA was also making some progress in its negotiations with industry over front of pack food labelling. The aim was to include not only a traffic light measure of the overall healthiness but information on portion size and calories. Improved legibility would, it was hoped, help to improve public awareness.

Another focus for FSA work was eating out. The agency had worked for the past year with many of the main catering companies across the UK. ‘Our aim is to get these companies to work in partnership and produce a number of items that can be put in the healthier category,’ she said.

They were also piloting work with retailers to put calorie labels on such things as take-out products. ‘We have found that many retailers are quite happy to do this, allowing consumers to make choices around the products they are buying.’

She also announced plans to produce factsheets with local authorities for the benefit of small businesses, starting with some fish and chip shops.

Katherine Bishop, Scottish Government social marketing - Take Life On campaign update

The Scottish Government’s campaign to persuade adults to make small changes in eating habits and lifestyle to improve their health has already had an impact, according to Katherine Bishop from the Scottish Government’s social marketing division.

She described how a specifically targeted campaign in Lidl and Co-operative stores, which included advice,  marketing activity and leaflets had led to a 23% uplift in purchase of healthy goods at Lidl and a 12.7% increase at the Co-op.

‘This is real consumer behaviour change – we are very excited,’ she told her audience.

In addition she reported that, once prompted, 42% of people surveyed about the national Take Life On campaign recognised the ads, which appeared on TV, and 62% said they had been motivated by the ads.

The campaign, which was launched in June 2008, is based on a recognition that most people struggle to achieve a healthy lifestyle and that more progress is likely to be made if people are persuaded to make small, achievable changes that nevertheless could add up to significant improvements in health.

The campaign focuses on 10 small steps that most people can manage such as climbing the stairs rather than taking the lift or getting off the bus one stop earlier than normal. The key audience is in the C1, C2 and DE socioeconomic groups and aged between 25 and 50.

Another strand of the campaign is aimed at parents of children aged between six and 12, encouraging them to give their children a healthy start. A TV ad for this group stressed the fact that ‘the healthy choices you make, your kids make’.

The organisers had conducted field marketing at 12 Asda stores and five Lidl stores in areas of multiple deprivation, giving away leaflets and encouraging participation with offers of free fruit and mini footballs. They  had also updated the Take Life On website. The next phase was to extend the campaign to other supermarket chains and develop resources that could be used by community groups.

One of the biggest difficulties, said Katherine, was that many parents felt their family’s lifestyle was already healthy so they didn’t need to make further changes.

‘You have to appreciate that different individuals are at very different stages of the change-making journey,' said Katherine. Getting off the bus one stop early might be a huge step for someone who was heavily overweight.

The future areas for the campaign will be work in the community and workplace setting and developing the website further.

Amanda Brown, Scotland Food and Drink - Scotland Food & Drink’s approach to implementing the government’s policy

Scotland Food & Drink plans to make healthy eating one of the key planks of its new strategy, which aims to boost substantially the industry’s economic growth over the next decade, Amanda Brown told the conference.

Food and drink sales currently contribute £7.5bn to the Scottish economy and are responsible for 27% of the country’s total exports with the biggest exports being whisky, seafood and salmon. But the industry’s updated strategy seeks to increase this to £12.5bn by 2017.

Amanda, who is Operations Manager with Scotland Food & Drink, highlighted three key areas they would be focusing on: premium brands, health and provenance.

Giving greater weight to the health aspects of Scottish food made good commercial sense as well as fitting in with the public health agenda, she said.

Health was given as the motive for 20% of food purchases in the UK and 18% in Scotland.

The industry needed to do more to promote the health aspects of Scottish food both at home and abroad. It also needed to work to reduce salt, sugar and fat contents in some food products.

Focusing on provenance was about ensuring the industry made the most of its heritage, land, animals and quality. Scottish provenance was very strong in some sectors and less so in others. ‘We must play to our strengths on this.’

She accepted this was a multi-faceted challenge and that some elements of the food agenda – such as the environmental and economic priorities – were ‘not necessarily compatible’. But she insisted it was vital these potential conflicts were resolved. ‘This is not a “nice to do” – this is essential.’

The potential for the Scottish food and drink industry was huge, she said, but it depended on a joined up approach based on partnership. ‘We need to work smartly with others including health, education and families to help achieve the vision of Scotland being known as the land for food and drink.’

Fergus Millan, Scottish Government - Pulling all the health actions together and how it all fits

Encouraging healthy eating and boosting physical activity both have vital roles to play in tackling the growing problem of obesity in Scotland, said Fergus Millan, from the Scottish Government’s Health Improvement Strategy Division.

He warned that the rising incidence of obesity threatened a range of aspirations, including sustained economic growth. In addition the drain on public services would, it was estimated, cost the country around £3bn a year by 2030 if things did not improve.

The heart of the obesity problem was that ‘we eat too much – and we’re eating too much of the wrong things’, he said. People needed to increase their energy expenditure levels and increase their opportunities for active living. ‘We need to be active to be healthy.’

The 2008-11 Action Plan, Healthy Eating, Active Living, made £56m available to invest in a range of initiatives in different settings addressing physical activity, diet and achieving a healthy weight.

Everyone recognised that the action plan would not meet the obesity challenge by itself. But it did contain a commitment to develop a long-term strategy. This strategy would offer a ‘route map’ to getting most of the Scottish population within normal weight ranges by 2030.

But this was no overnight fix. ‘It will need a fundamental change in our environmental, social and cultural circumstances with policies geared to promoting, achieving and maintaining a healthy weight.’

One key element of this strategy had to be expanding the scale of the undertaking. ‘The direction is right at the moment but the scale isn’t,’ said Fergus. Much more needed to be done on a cross-cutting basis and with obesity reduction as the explicit objective.

It was important to recognise that cross-cutting could create tensions and that some policies might inadvertently exacerbate weight gain. But it could also have unexpected benefits. So, for instance, gardening schemes might have the effect of encouraging local, healthy food production while at the same time increasing activity and exercise. Nor need there be any conflict between these goals and the objective of increasing economic growth in the food and drink industry.

The government also wanted to focus attention on the early years, establishing good habits at an early age, as well as working through Working Lives to ensure organisations took responsibility for their workforce.

A lot of activity needed to be better joined up than it was at the moment. ‘We could be thinking about how we progress this a bit better. There is the potential to link relatively complex issues such as climate change and sustainability. But that’s not going to be easy.’

The key thing was that there was now a clear desire for change. ‘I think politicians and the public recognise we can’t remain as we are. We have to do things differently. If we are to tackle obesity and improve health we have to change.’