Calorie Reduction Deal - but.........

A week later than intended the Department of Health [DH] has published the calorie reduction pledges that it has secured from the food industry as part of its Responsibility Deal plan.  The announcement was to have been made on March 14th to celebrate the 1st Anniversary of the idea of pledges being agreed and the script for the day called for a fanfare tp herald a number of " momentum building " exemplars to showcase the commitment of industry to health.  Unfortunately, key industry players such as McDonalds, KFC and Burger King didn't read the script and the announcement has had to be made without them pledging anything.  The fact that the DH Press Release publicising the pledges was embargoed to midnight last night also gives the impression that someone thought that a Saturday would be a better day to bury  " not such good news ".

The Deal is, however, a beginning with a lot more work to be done - and DH has admitted as much.  In the end, the National Obesity Forum believes that regulation/legislation will be required to bring everybody into line: the majority of the 75% of brands who signed the pledge have only " promised " to do things: they have not specified how many calories they will take out and by when.  Coca Cola - acknowledged by NOF for its commitment to swap sugar for sweeteners in many of its soft drinks brands - is an exception.  It will take 30% of calories out by 2014 by its use of stevia.  Tesco should be also be complimented on its decision to make shopping for low-calorie products easier by adding a " Green Ping " label to the packaging - a " traffic lights " system if there ever was one!  One day the UK will see the end to the impossibly complicated GDA food labelling system.