Progress been made, but there is still a long way to go on the pledges made by bakeries as part of the Public Health Responsibility Deal.
The Department of Health (DoH) has published the first annual updates, from 187 partners, which show their progress around areas such as salt reduction, out-of-home calorie labelling, and artificial trans-fat removal.
EAT was one of the furthest away from reaching the 2012 salt reduction targets, with only four out of 14 of its food categories currently meeting the criteria. The bakery retail chain revealed that products such as its bread, rolls, morning goods, cakes and sandwiches, did not yet meet the targets. However, it hoped four more categories would meet the salt reduction target by the end of 2012. Pret A Manger also revealed it was not yet meeting the 2012 salt targets on its full line of cakes, pastries, fruit pies, sandwiches or morning goods.
Associated British Foods said 100% of its bread and rolls met the target, but only 52% of its morning goods did. It cited specific difficulties in reducing the sodium content of its morning goods, due to the need for raising agents.
Meanwhile, Whitbread, parent company of Costa, said it had faced difficulties reducing the salt in its pastries due to the all-butter recipe, and said alternative fat recipes had been rejected by customers in taste tests.
United Biscuits admitted it was not currently meeting the salt reduction targets in any of its category areas, but that 98% of its cakes currently met the target, as did 93% of its sweet biscuits.
Of the supermarkets, Asda reported that 100% of its bread, rolls and morning goods hit the targets, as did its cakes and pastries. Tesco was also already meeting the majority of the salt reduction targets as was Morrisons, Waitrose and The Co-operative.
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