IGD launches healthy eating programme

Spanning the entire food chain, the plan was created by IGD and industry partners, based on three key elements. Those are: nutrition labelling communication, food provision in the workplace and reformuation.

New shopper research is planned to understand how more people could benefit from using nutrition labelling, more of the time. Recommendations from the research will be used to “inspire and enable industry to deliver better public engagement”, ​said the IGD in a statement.

‘Nudge techniques’​

Food provision in the workplace focused on working with a research partner to conduct a series of healthy eating intervention pilots across various food and grocery employee sites next year. The tests will be used to access various ‘nudge techniques’ to encourage healthier eating choices.

Drawing on trial results, best practice will be published to inspire companies to adopt the recommendations.

On reformulation the IGD planned to consult with small and medium-sized enterprises to better understand attitudes, knowledge and barriers to reformulation. These findings will then be used to build on existing reformulation industry case studies and guidelines, to help smaller businesses and those with less developed reformulation strategies.

“Reached the tipping point”​

IGD chief executive Jonanne Denny-Finch told delegates at the grocery think tank’s Big Debate conference in central London yesterday (October 6) the debate about health eating had now “reached the tipping point”.​

Despite many food companies best efforts to improve the nation’s nutrition – with transparent labelling, product reformulation, downsizing portions, promoting healthier options and much more – obesity was still rising, she said.

The global cost of obesity was now estimated at $2trillion – equivalent to all the world’s armed conflict, according to McKinsey. Also the National Health Service chief executive Simon Stevens had warned obesity could bankrupt the health service.

Against this background, Denny-Finch said the IGD had already received “huge backing” for the new collective programme on Healthy Eating.

Meanwhile, speaking at the same conference, Tesco chief executive David Lewis said sorry to suppliers, customers and other stakeholders who had fallen victim to the retailer’s past mistakes made in the pursuit of unsustainable profit.

Watch out for more news and video interviews from the IGD conference later this week.