Food and Health Dialogue endorses Quick Service Restaurant strategy

Salt in fast food is just one of the targets the government’s Food and Health Dialogue has in its sights. The Dialogue has endorsed a Quick Service Restaurant (QSR) engagement strategy that involves negotiations with the sector to develop reformulation targets.

Modelling work conducted by the Dialogue suggests that about 2200 tonnes of salt can be removed from the Australian food supply each year.

“Research suggests that discretionary foods form a large part of Australians’, and particularly children’s, diets,” said Catherine King, Parliamentary Secretary for Health and Ageing.

“The QSR sector can play an important role in improving the health outcomes for Australians through participation in activities aimed at improving the nutritional quality of fast foods, reducing standard portion sizes and further educating customers about how to make healthier food choices.

“Many QSR companies are already formulating their products to improve nutritional quality, and the Dialogue aims are to build on, rather than replicate, these efforts,” King said.

So far, the Dialogue has engaged with a number of QSRs, including McDonald’s Australia, Hungry Jack’s, Yum! Restaurants International (parent company of KFC and Pizza Hut), QSR Holdings (incorporating Red Rooster, Oporto and Chicken Treat) and Subway.

The Dialogue will conduct a roundtable in September for members to discuss and agree on reformulation activities they plan to undertake.

Meeting last week, the Dialogue also discussed key milestones and priorities, including progress reports from a number of industry roundtables. The bread roundtable heard that in 2011-12, 27 bread products were reformulated, with an average total sodium reduction of 11%, bringing the total number of bread products reformulated with lower sodium content since 2010 to 67.

Breakfast cereal manufacturers have had similar successes, with 22 of the 28 cereals earmarked for reformulation having their sodium content reduced on average by 25%. Some processed meat products have also been reformulated with lower sodium contents. Five new processed meat products launched since 2011 have sodium and saturated fat levels lower than the Dialogue’s reformulation targets.

The Dialogue also discussed cheese reformulation innovations and challenges, a savoury pie roundtable, dietary intake modelling and the next categories to be engaged under the dialogue.

“Members noted the work reaffirms that food reformulation is cumulative and requires the involvement of all food manufacturers to achieve more significant reductions similar to those experienced in the UK where over 80 food categories have been reformulated, resulting in a reduction of 1.4 g of sodium per person per day,” a communique from the Dialogue said.