Trust the numbers? What McCance & Widdowson tell us about nutrition labelling

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In the UK, the assimilated food information regulation (EU 1169/2011) requires mandatory ‘back of pack’ nutrition labelling for the majority of pre-packed foods. The values declared should be the average values derived using one or more of the following methods:

• Manufacturer’s analysis of the food
• A calculation from the known or actual average values of the ingredients used in the preparation of the food, or
• A calculation from generally established and accepted data.

So let’s talk about ‘generally established and accepted data’

In the UK the Composition of foods integrated dataset (CoFID) is the official UK national food composition database and is available as a single electronic file, most recently updated in 2021.  The McCance and Widdowson 7th Edition book, last published in 2015, contains a subset of data from the CoFID 2015 version.

The dataset provides macronutrient and micronutrient profiles of commonly consumed food and recipes including cereals and cereal products, milk and milk products, eggs and egg dishes, fats and oils, meat and meat products, fish and fish products, vegetables, herbs and spices, fruit, nuts and seeds, sugars, preserves and snacks, beverages, alcoholic beverages and soups, sauces and miscellaneous foods.  All foods are expressed per 100g edible portion, unless otherwise stated, and alcoholic beverages are expressed per 100ml.

CoFID as we know it today began in the 1930s with the vision of Dr Robert McCance and Dr Elsie Widdowson.

“A knowledge of the chemical composition of foods is the first essential in the dietary treatment of disease or in any quantitative study of human nutrition’” – (McCance & Widdowson, 1940)

Public Health England are now responsible for maintaining data on the nutrient content of the UK food supply to support the National Diet and Nutrition Survey, and it is data from this work that is used to update CoFID.  Food composition data is updated for many reasons including new foods being introduced, existing foods being reformulated as well as new farming and manufacturing processes.

Using CoFID values on food labels

If you have ever used CoFID or 7th edition of McCance & Widdowson, you will no doubt be aware of the guidance notes on pages 15-17 (or pages 21-24 if you have the book).  If not, then it is really important you read that section so that you are aware of the differences between some values listed in the dataset compared to the requirements of the current food labelling regulations. In summary:

Protein – means the protein content calculated using the nitrogen content x 6.25, whereas more specific factors have been used in the CoFID dataset.

Carbohydrate – is provided in the dataset as its monosaccharide equivalents (mse), whereas for labelling it should be the weight of the carbohydrates themselves. The following factors should be used to convert mse to actual weights:

Energy values – are to be calculated for food labels using the conversion factors provided in annex XIV of EU 1169/2011:

Alternative datasets

On occasions it is necessary to use nutrition values from a different food composition database, a common one is the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s USDA National Nutrient Database for Standard Reference.  It is just as important to make sure you understand the differences in the dataset compared to UK labelling requirements, for example total carbohydrate by difference includes the fibre content and so this requires adjustment before using.

With more than 25 years’ experience in food and nutrition labelling, AB Food Nutrition helps you produce compliant nutrition declarations for menus and product labels, whether you’re selling in the UK/EU, US, Canada or Australia. Our service is straightforward and cost-effective. We calculate the nutrient profile of your recipes from the ingredients, quantities and cooking methods you use, and we can recommend ways to improve their nutritional profile so you can offer customers healthier choices.  For more information, please contact Anne.

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12-Month Countdown to HFSS Volume Price Restrictions: What You Need to Know

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The Food (promotion and Placement) (England) Regulations 2021 came into force 1 October 2022 with the first part restricting less healthy (HFSS) products by location, both online and in store.   The next step will see restrictions on volume price promotions from 1 October 2025. This includes ‘buy one get one free’ and multibuy promotions.

Why is this important?

There is evidence to support the highly effective influences price promotions have on food preferences and purchases.  Reducing such promotions for less healthy foods – or increasing the promotions on healthier foods is an essential step to reducing sugar and calorie intake in children and to help tackle obesity.

The location of products within stores significantly affects what we buy and retail environments do not always align with current healthy eating guidelines.  This next stage in the regulation aims to significantly improve the food environment and make healthier food more easily accessible.

Food and drinks that are in scope of the regulations will fall into one of the 13 categories listed in schedule 1 and will score as being ‘less healthy’ according to the nutrient profiling model (NPM) calculations.  Retailers will be expected to check the scores for all relevant products and manufacturers are also being asked to provide this data through platforms such as NielsenIQ Brandbank.

HFSS rules and product development opportunities!

With restrictions already in place and more on the horizon, including plans for the Welsh government and Scottish government to implement restrictions in future, companies who develop products that are both tasty and healthy are likely to have a competitive advantage.  Fat, sugar and salt all have their roles in affecting taste, texture and shelf-life of products and so reformulating should not compromise any of these.  Additional ways to improve the nutrient profile is to increase fibre and fruit, vegetables or nuts whilst still reducing the saturated fat, salt and sugar content.  Successful reformulation takes time and technical expertise, but there are resources available to help you, for example – take a look at the Food & Drink Federation Reformulation Support Toolkit!

 

AB Food Nutrition has over 15 years experience in calculating HFSS scores for foods and drinks and working with product developers to identify ways to improve the nutrient profile of recipes and formulations. If you need help calculating Nutrient Profiling Scores for your products, or if you need more information about HFSS regulatory requirements, please contact Anne.

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UK Government delays some EU food labelling rule changes

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Following the UK exit from the EU, the UK Government had put in place a period of adjustment (21 months) for labelling changes to goods produced or imported and placed on the GB market. This period of adjustment was due to end 30 September 2022.

Due to the current cost of living crisis and to protect consumers from being passed any associated administrative costs, the Government has announced delaying these labelling rule changes from 1 October 2022 to 1 January 2024. This means that some labelling terms including EU Food Business Operator addresses and UK/EC health marks will continue to be permitted on the whole of the GB market for an additional 15 months.

The labelling rules affected include:

With the extra 15 months grace period to get your labels updated, check out this useful, frequently asked questions guide with responses from DEFRA’s Food Information to Consumers Team. A copy of the full note from DEFRA about the extension period is available below:

With over 20 years experience in ensuring regulatory compliance of food labels and specifications and carrying out nutrition analysis for back and front-of-pack labelling, AB Food Nutrition can review your product artwork and highlight anything that needs to change, suggesting ways you can amend so that you they meet the latest regulations and industry best practice.  Contact Anne for a competitive quote today.

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Time to display the calories

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Back in 2018, I wrote a blog discussing some of the evidence and benefits of adding calorie values to menus as part of the strategy to tackle obesity.  At that point, the UK government was proposing to introduce legislation to make this mandatory for the out of home sector in England and since then the COVID-19 pandemic has really shown us the impact obesity has on health and health outcomes.  

That proposal is now a reality with regulations having been laid before parliament to ensure implementation by April 2022.  The new regulation is known as the Calorie Labelling (Out of Home Sector) (England) Regulations 2021.

The new regulations are being introduced to ensure that large businesses display calorie information on menus and food labels in order to help consumers make healthier choices when eating out.  This means cafes, restaurants and takeaways with 250+ employees must provide the calorie information for food and soft drinks at the point of choice – whether that be a physical or online menu, food label or via an online or app-based food order & delivery service.

There are a few points worth highlighting from the draft regulation:

The energy content (kcal) must be provided for a single portion or, if the item is meant for consumption by more than one person, the whole item.

The size of the portion or the number of people it shall serve must also be displayed along with a statement “adults need around 2000kcal a day” (the latter is not required on a children’s only menu).

Foods in scope of the regulation include: those suitable for immediate consumption both on or off the premises; food that isn’t pre-packed or requires further preparation by the consumer before eating e.g. peeling/washing/cooking or re-heating.

There are a number of exempt foods such as: condiments provided to be added by the consumer; foods provided to hospital patients/care home residents/school children; unprocessed single ingredient foods; fresh fruit or veg; food provided by a charity.

Foods not included on the menu that are made at the express request of a customer or have been made in a different way than usual are also exempt from calorie information.

There are concerns from eating disorder charities that the new rules could exacerbate eating disorder thoughts and behaviours or increase stress for those with eating disorders.  With this in mind, the government has included a provision permitting businesses to provide a menu without calorie information at the request of the customer.

As experts in food and nutrition labelling, providing nutrition information for menus and product labels for over 20 years, AB Food Nutrition can work with you to implement the new regulation quickly, easily and cost-effectively.  We calculate the nutrient profile of your recipes based on the ingredients, quantities and cooking methods used. We can even provide suggestions on how to improve the nutritional profile of your recipes so that you can offer customers healthier choices.  For more information, please contact Anne.

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Tips for reviewing your food & drink label artworks

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We are now a good few weeks into the post-Brexit era and navigating our way through the changes and challenges this has brought to the food industry.  The final months of the transition period were particularly busy for anyone concerned with the regulatory aspects of food labelling – making sure necessary changes were in place before the 30 December 2020 deadline so that products could continue to be sold throughout the EU.  That work still isn’t quite finished yet but thankfully for those of you who only sell to the UK market there is a bit of breathing space until 2022 to get everything in order.

The monumental increase in label/artwork checking in the latter part of 2020 meant there was clearly not enough hours in the day to lose reviewing amended versions 2 or 3 or beyond, and so it was highly important to make sure everything was correct or that all of the necessary amendments had been identified at version 1.  The way I generally approach this is to follow a four stage review process, which I thought might be useful to share with you.

  1. Is it the correct product/recipe?
  2. Is the information technically correct as per the regulations?
  3. Is the information consistent?
  4. Read it again through the eyes of a consumer.

Before you start, make sure you have set aside enough time to do the review adequately and get rid of any distractions.  If you are going to spot mistakes then you need to concentrate.

Stage one

You will know exactly what I mean here! You have literally spent months (or longer) developing your product and modifying the recipe to perfection, so by this stage you must be absolutely sure you are using the correct and final recipe to establish your ingredients list, allergens and nutrition information.  A few quick sense checks here and there are useful too – for example, if you know you are adding 1% salt to your product – do the nutrition values match and is there at least 1g/100g salt declared?  

Stage two

This is the bit that understandably takes the longest.  First, you need to be confident that you know which pieces of legislation apply to your product. You must check carefully that all the mandatory information is included and presented correctly as specified in the regulations. For example, in addition to the selling title, have you included a suitable legal name for the food such as a customary name or a sufficient descriptive name? Are the ingredients all declared is descending order by weight including the sub-ingredients of any compound raw materials? Have you highlighted every allergen in the ingredients list? Is the nutrition table in the correct format/order?  Are you making any authorised nutrition or health claims – and does your product comply with the necessary conditions?  If you happen to be making products that are sold under a retailer own brand then you will have the retailer’s labelling policies to consider as well.

Stage three

Consistency of the information on your artwork can mean two things. One, being consistent with the other products you already manufacture and sell – to convey your brand identity, and two, for consistency with other brands of the same or similar products.  Compare to see if you are providing the same general information as the other brands and haven’t overlooked anything vital. Take care here though and don’t always assume that the other brands are 100% legal.

Stage four

Finally, have a look at your new label from a consumer perspective. Absolutely no spelling mistakes! (Apparently, proof-reading backwards helps with this as it stops you from skimming the text – give it a go!). Is there anything that isn’t clear and might prompt consumer queries? Is photography realistic and representative of what will be inside the pack?  Is the design eye catching and can consumers easily compare your product to something similar when they are walking down the shopping aisle?  Is there enough contrast between the colour of the text versus the background and is the font type used clearly legible?

We’ve still got some time yet to get all our UK packaging compliant before October 2022, and I hope my hints might help make the process more structured for you whenever you are launching a new product or redesigning existing.

If you would prefer to outsource this important task, then don’t hesitate to contact a food regulatory/labelling expert who already does this crucial work day in and day out.

With over 20 years experience in ensuring regulatory compliance of food labels and specifications and carrying out nutrition analysis for back and front-of-pack labelling, AB Food Nutrition can review your product artwork and highlight anything that needs to change, suggesting ways you can amend so that you they meet the latest regulations and industry best practice.  Contact Anne for a competitive quote today.

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