IGD launches online guide to making food and drink healthier
Research and training charity IGD has launched an online interactive guide that aims to help catering companies serve healthier food drink through menu reformulation.
The guide was developed by a panel of nutrition and technical experts from IGD's industry nutrition strategy group in response to increasing pressure on food and drink companies to deliver healthier products in light of statistics that say 65% of men and 58% of women are currently overweight or obese.
"Obesity continues to be a growing problem. Helping to improve the health of the nation remains a priority for food and drink companies and many have already developed healthier products or made changes to existing recipes," commented Joanne Denney-Finch, chief executive at IGD.
Included in the guide is advice on how to reduce saturated fat, salt and energy (including sugars), a downloadable approximate nutrition calculation tool and best practice case studies.
Professor Susan Jebb, chair of the Responsibility Deal Food Network described reformulating food and drink to reduce sugar, fat and salt content as "one of the most impactful ways the food industry can help people eat fewer calories and less salt, and curtail the burden of ill health caused by poor diets".
"I hope businesses will use this tool developed by IGD to help them take further action," she said. "We need all business to sign up to all the Responsibility Deal pledges that are relevant to them if we are to realise the full potential of the reformulation agenda."
The guide is free to download from IGD's website : www.igd.com/reformulation