The relationship between food, nutrition and public health has become one of the most critical issues of our time. In the United Kingdom, over 60 percent of adults and more than one-third of 2-15 year olds are now classed as obese or overweight, while 1.5 million people suffer from malnutrition. The direct cost of these issues to the National Health Service (NHS) is estimated at GBP 5 billion (EUR 6.3 billion/USD 7.9 billion) per year, but the indirect costs to the country’s wider economy are significantly greater — the total cost of poor diet to U.K. society is estimated to reach GBP 27 billion (EUR 34.1 billion/USD 42.5 billion) next year.
At the Food Matters Live Conference held in London this month, Julie Watson, Head of Nutrition with Iglo Foods Group, outlined the European frozen food giant’s approach for tackling the country’s obesity epidemic while also reducing food waste.
“U.K. obesity is a great concern for us and the government,” said Watson. “Obesity is a multi-factorial issue but one of the key factors is food and we know that what we eat does affect our health.”
Watson referred to the top line results from the latest annual National Diet and Nutrition Survey (NDNS), published by Public Health England (PHE), which finds that the overall population is still consuming too much saturated fat, added sugars and salt and not enough fruit, vegetables, fiber and oily fish.
Along with vegetables, fish is one of the main commercial interests for Iglo, which trades as Birds Eye in the United Kingdom. But according to NDNS’s latest data for the period 2008-2012, the government’s recommended consumption of one 140g portion of oily fish per week is only being achieved by one-third of U.K. adults, making the average intake only about 50g, she said.
“For children, it’s even less. Their average intake is just 14g, which is less weight than one fish finger. That is quite a big challenge for us. We want to help the population improve its diet, particularly its vegetable and fish intake,” said Watson.
“We also know from [consumer research group] Kantar data that the energy density of the average shopping basket is rising — it has more calories in it than previous years.”
Watson said Iglo believes that everyone has a part to play in delivering transformational change and ensuring people eat both healthily and sustainably. At the center of its strategy is a new “Forever Food Together” program, which sets out its targets for offering consumers healthier products and encouraging them to only eat what they need “with three promises for a sustainable future.”
Iglo’s first commitment is to help consumers understand how frozen food is a more sustainable choice; second, it will offer new product innovations that will allow consumers to make healthy choices; and thirdly, all of its food products will be responsibly sourced and prepared by 2020.
The program is being promoted on Iglo’s packaging using a green version of its iconic Captain Birds Eye/Captain Iglo figure (pictured) to symbolize its sustainability commitments.
Watson said to justify what it was doing and to have an objective definition of healthy, Iglo looked at various models of nutrient profiling used in a number of countries around the world. It also conducted a lot of interviews with nutrition academics and consulted many key opinion holders from the field of diet and health. The conclusion was that the Office of Communications (OFCOM) Nutrient Profiling Model used in the United Kingdom would be the best fit for the business in terms of helping drive product formulation and to enable consumers to be confident that if they chose a Birds Eye/Iglo product then they will be making a healthy choice, she said.
“We like this tool because it looks at key areas of public health concern: it looks at the energy density, saturated fat, the sugar and sodium content. It also looks at the positive benefits of product delivery, taking account of the fruit, vegetable, fiber and protein content. We particularly like the protein parameter as it acts as a good indicator of iron, calcium and omega-3 fatty acids. We use this tool across our whole business to check every single recipe, in every European market.”
Recent data from an IGD Shopper Vision poll revealed that for 49 percent of consumers health is one of the top five drivers for choosing a product and about one-third of consumers are looking for products that are low in saturated fat or salt, said Watson.
“As a pan-European group, it’s interesting to see that across Europe, consumers are striving for a healthier lifestyle, particularly in Italy, Germany and France.”
But she stressed that Iglo is not just concerned with the health aspect of food, it also needs to deliver products that consumers want to eat, saying if it doesn’t taste good, they won’t eat it again.
“Another factor is that consumers want their food to be fresh, particularly when it comes to fruit, vegetables, fish and meat. Freezing seals in freshness and great taste.”
Last week, Iglo reported third-quarter 2014 net sales group-wide had increased 2.7 percent year-on-year despite the frozen food category declining by 0.4 percent in the quarter. For the same period, its EBITDA grew 9.7 percent year-on-year.
In announcing the results, CEO Elio Leoni Sceti said several new product launches in the year had met with a positive consumer response and delivered strong performance in their respective markets, in particular the “Inspirations” platform in the U.K. and Italian markets. Inspirations is a range of fish and chicken recipes.
However, the group also announced that it would cease marketing its products in Romania, Slovakia and Turkey where the frozen category is small in terms of the overall grocery market.
