The Food and Drink Federation (FDF) is calling on government to create a £4m fund to support investments from smaller businesses in healthier product innovation.
Companies including bakeries are looking to reformulate their recipes to meet rising demand for products with reduced sugar, salt and fat content (non-HFSS) or added inclusions of fruit, vegetables, and fibre.
However, the FDF noted that many businesses, particularly those of small and medium size (SMEs) which make up 98% of the firms in the sector, do not have the in-house expertise or financial resources to undertake this specialist R&D.
Such support has been already provided for 80 SME food suppliers in Scotland over the past five years as part of the Scottish Government-funded ‘Reformulation for Health’ programme. This has helped remove billions of calories and tonnes of fat, sugar, and salt from popular products, like butteries at The Hame Bakery. FDF Scotland recently launched a new £50k funding round called the Healthier Food Service Fund, which focusses on products for out-of-home consumption.
The FDF asserted that expanding the successful programme in Scotland with a £4m fund for the rest of the UK would help more smaller businesses access the vital support they need to develop healthier recipes, grow their businesses, and drive investment in local economies. Broadening the eligibility criteria of R&D tax credits for larger food manufacturers to offset the significant upfront costs required to invest in product reformulation would support further healthier product innovation, added the trade body.
In 2023 alone, UK-based food and drink manufacturers spent more than £160m developing healthier options for consumers. This resulted in FDF members’ products contributing 33% less salt, 25% fewer sugars, and 24% less calories to the grocery market when compared to 2015 [Kantar Worldpanel GB data].
Additionally, the FDF’s Action on Fibre initiative has manufacturers helping make higher-fibre choices more accessible to consumers, providing an additional 190 million servings of fibre to the UK population in 2023 – equivalent to 207 million slices of wholemeal bread.
The call for government funding was made at FDF’s Innovation for Healthier Diets tasting event in Parliament on Monday (11 November), which shone a spotlight on the work of UK manufacturers to facilitate healthier diets. Among the products served was cake with sugar-reduced content.
In her speech at the event, FDF chief executive Karen Betts noted the task of making existing food brands healthier is complex, requires significant investment, and can take many years to get a new product from concept to sale.
“With just £4 million, the government could establish a support scheme for small and medium sized businesses across the UK,” she said. “This would help to mitigate the risk of a company carrying out this important work to improve public health, while enabling them to access critical advice and practical support.”
The House of Lords Food, Diet and Obesity Committee recently published a report titled ‘Recipe for health: a plan to fix our broken food system’, which included recommendations that the government introduce a salt and sugar tax and ban all adverts for ‘less healthy’ food.
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