Saturated fat campaign – supportive quotes

'We are delighted to support this FSA campaign to help people understand how saturated fat contributes to bad health. The British Heart Foundation is dedicated to fighting the growing tide of obesity-related ill health because being overweight or obese is a major risk factor for heart disease – it’s been estimated that 63% of heart attacks in Western Europe can be attributed to obesity.'

'Empowering everyone with the knowledge they need to make healthier choices in the shops is essential, but so is the commitment of food manufacturers and retailers. The food industry holds the power to reduce portion sizes and to reformulate foods to make sure products contain less salt and saturated fat. The nation’s diets will only improve if everyone plays their part.'
Peter Hollins, Chief Executive, British Heart Foundation

'High saturated fat intakes are associated with raised blood cholesterol levels – a risk factor for coronary heart disease and stroke. Fat also provides the most concentrated source of calories in the diet. On average, children and adults are eating too much saturated fat and much of this is unseen in processed foods such as cakes, biscuits, pastries, ready meals, pies, sausages, ice cream and fast food.'

'The Food Standards Agency campaign will help consumers to understand the health benefits of eating less saturated fat. However, the food industry holds the key to helping people lower their intakes by cutting down the saturated fat in products and providing clear traffic light labelling on front of pack so consumers can spot saturated fats at a glance and choose healthier alternatives.'
Paul Lincoln, Chief Executive, National Heart Forum

'As parents we have such busy lives, with so many priorities to juggle, that healthy eating often takes a back seat. But what we eat can make a real difference to the way we look and feel, and most importantly to our health. Because eating too much saturated fat can be bad for our hearts and lead to putting on weight, it's so important parents think about how much of it they and their families eat. At Netmums, we like the FSA campaign because it shows there are very simple and cost-effective steps everyone can take, when shopping, preparing and cooking meals, to eat less saturated fat. Changing our eating habits can often seem daunting but the great news is that just a few small changes here and there can ultimately improve our quality of life and the lives that our children grow up to have. It's well worth the effort!'
Cathy Court, Director, Netmums

'Many people are still confused about dietary fats and the foods which contain them, which ones to choose, which to cut down on, which to avoid. Making just a few simple changes to the type of fat we eat could have a substantial effect on our health, particularly in relation to cutting the risk of heart disease. The FSA saturated fat campaign has helped by providing people with information they need to make wise dietary choices and we support and complement the FSA in trying to help people cut their saturated fat intake.'
Sian Porter, The Fat Panel

'A good diet is vitally important to every one of us but all too often it can be confusing for people to work out what they should be eating. The FSA's creative campaign to reduce saturated fat offers a helping hand to consumers and with its simple tips and hints shows how even small steps can make a real difference to your health.'
Helen McCallum, Director of Policy and Communications, Which?

'Asda takes the health of our customers and colleagues very seriously. Throughout 2009, we've continued to reformulate and develop new products with improved nutritional profiles including further salt, saturated fat and sugar reductions. In addition, we clearly highlight the nutritional content of our products with an integrated front-of-pack labelling scheme showing text, GDAs and traffic light colours. Consumer education is an important part of the overall strategy to improve the nation's diet and Asda is supportive of the Agency's consumer awareness campaign on saturated fat.'
Andy Bond, Chief Executive, Asda

'The Co-operative fully supports the FSA saturated fat campaign objectives of raising consumer awareness around the health impacts of too much saturated fat in our diets. As the largest community retailer in the UK, with stores in the heart of the communities in which we trade, we are determined to play our part in tackling obesity by helping our customers to make healthier and more informed choices for themselves and their families. Product innovation and reformulation is reducing the amount of saturated fat in our products and by providing front-of-pack traffic light labelling, supplemented by Green Dot low saturated fat claims on an increasing number of products, we are making it easier for our customers to choose healthier alternatives.'
Debbie Robinson, Director of Food Retail Marketing, The Co-operative Group

'Health professionals have been aware of the health consequences from a diet high in saturated fat for a number of years. However, results from the FSA consumer research told us that people are confused about different types of fat. At M&S we are committed to helping our customers lead healthy lives and we welcome any campaign from the Food Standards Agency that helps educate consumers about a healthy diet, and how they can make more informed choices about what they eat. As with the salt campaign, the saturated fat campaign complements existing healthy eating messages that we provide to consumers, hopefully encouraging people to look at the saturated fat content clearly displayed on our labels and choose more of the healthy options across the wide range of food M&S offers.'
Claire Hughes, Nutritionist, M&S

'Saturated fat reduction has always been a key part of our product development and reformulation strategy. With over 18 million customers shopping with us each week we have an important role to play in the nation’s health. Our role is to ensure we have great-tasting healthier products as well as information customers require to help them follow a healthier lifestyle. '

'We go to great lengths to help customers make informed choices through clear on-pack labelling such as multiple traffic lights. We also provide customers with inspiration to cook healthy, tasty and affordable meals with our ‘feed your family for a fiver’ campaign.'
Charlotte Parker, Company Nutritionist, Sainsbury's

'Tesco is committed to providing customers with the information they need to make healthy choices.

We welcome the FSA campaign and we are helping customers to reduce the amount of saturated fat they consume by launching our lighter cheese range, which contains 30% less fat than our standard range.

Since 2005, we have removed over 2,500 tonnes of saturated fats from our own products.'
Lucy Neville-Rolfe, Executive Director, Corporate and Legal Affairs, Tesco

'Helping customers reduce their saturated fat intake whilst enjoying a healthy, balanced diet is a key priority for Waitrose and we fully support this Agency campaign.

We are the only retailer to offer our customers a clearly labelled low saturated fat range of ready meals and desserts. This range demonstrates our commitment to improving public health through the development of products with low levels of this key nutrient.

We work closely with our suppliers to seek ways in which we can reformulate everyday products to provide an improved nutritional profile with respect to saturated fat levels. This work forms an integral part of our nutrition policy.'
Moira Howie, Nutrition Manager, Waitrose

'We welcome and support the FSA campaign and believe this will raise consumer awareness and improve understanding of saturated fat. Alpro are committed to promoting a healthy balanced diet to customers and pride ourselves on offering products which are naturally low in saturated fat or lower in saturated fat than alternative products on the market. In 2008 we launched a chilled cream alternative which contains 45% less fat (88% less saturated fat) than standard dairy single cream. Going forward we will continue to reformulate existing products and develop new products with an optimal nutritional profile that will be of benefit to our customers' health.'
John Allaway, Commercial Director, Alpro Soya

'Producing cheese that has lower levels of saturated fat has long been an important part of the development work we carry out at Cricketer Farm and we are pleased to be able to show our support for the Food Standards Agency’s saturated fat campaign. Our cheesemakers use traditional skills to create our lower-fat recipes and the process of reducing the saturated fat levels is really very simple; we use local milk which is then skimmed to create semi-skimmed or skimmed milk – nothing artificial is added, only the fat is taken away. The resulting cheese has up to 50% less saturated fat than our Farmhouse Cheddars, but is still smooth, rich and full of flavour.'
Paddy O’Keeffe, Managing Director, Cricketer Farm

'Heinz is committed to making a positive contribution towards health and wellness, and fully supports the FSA campaign to help drive greater awareness of the smarter choices we can all make to reduce fat and saturated fat.

'The majority of our foods are already low in fat and saturated fat. As well as our extensive range of Weight Watchers from Heinz varieties, offering reduced calories and lower-fat recipes, Heinz has reduced and light versions of a number of our most popular products that offer healthier eating without compromising on taste. At Heinz we believe that great-tasting foods can be healthy too.'
Dave Woodward, President, Heinz UK & Ireland

'At McCain Foods we take the nutritional content of our products very seriously and for many years have been making sure our products are as healthy as they can be, in particular, striving to make ongoing reductions in saturated fat. We very much welcome any initiative that helps consumers to make healthier choices with their food and we would encourage all food and drink manufacturers to get behind this important initiative from the Food Standards Agency.'
Nick Vermont, CEO, McCain

'Premier Foods has responsibility for the continuing success of a large number of much-loved and trusted household brands. We continuously strive to help consumers achieve the balance between enjoyment and health by both developing new products and reviewing current products. More than 70% of our retail and catering products are already low in saturated fat and many products have a lower saturated fat alternative. Our Quorn products contain up to 70% less saturated fat than their meat alternatives. Our front-of-pack GDA labelling incorporates saturated fat, helping consumers make healthier choices.'

'Our health and nutrition programme includes salt and saturated fat reduction alongside the provision of lower salt and saturated fat alternatives. The progress of our health and nutrition programme is monitored internally with reports to our Board and achievements are published in our annual report.'
Jo Butten, Company Nutritionist, Premier Foods

'As the company responsible for bringing the country’s first 1% fat milk to market, Robert Wiseman Dairies is committed to promoting milk as an essential part of a healthy, balanced diet.'

'We endorse the Food Standard Agency campaign to encourage people to reduce their intake of saturated fats. Our 1% fat milk – ‘the One’, and our skimmed milk variants will both help to promote the campaign with an on-pack endorsement to raise consumer awareness.'
Sandy Wilkie, Sales and Marketing Director, Robert Wiseman Dairies

'United Biscuits (UB) is working closely with the FSA on its saturated fat and energy programme. Reducing saturated fat in our products has long been a focus for UB and many of Britain’s best-loved biscuits and snack brands now contain less saturated fat, but have the same great taste. In November 2008, UB reduced the saturated fat content of three of its leading McVitie's biscuit brands so that the standard and Lights ranges of McVitie's Digestives, McVitie's HobNobs and McVitie's Rich Tea contained 50% less saturated fat. In December 2009 the saturated fat in these products was reduced by a further 50%, meaning these products now contain their lowest ever levels of saturated fat. '

'In 2009, go ahead! Crispy Fruit Slices were reduced in saturated fat by 50% and go ahead! Yogurt Breaks by 18%. Jacob’s Light Cream Crackers now contain 55% less saturated fat and Jacob’s Cream Crackers and High Fibre Cream Crackers contain 30% less. Since 2005 we have also been making changes to our snacks portfolio: Hula Hoops are now made with 100% sunflower oil and contain 80% less saturated fat than in 2005; Skips and Discos have 50% less saturated fat; and McCoy’s, Frisps and Roysters contain 60% less saturated fat.'
Jon Eggleton, Marketing Director, United Biscuits UK

'The Food Standards Agency should be commended for the way they've gone about developing their saturated fat programme. It is derived from World Health Organization targets and underpinned by a clear Impact Assessment.'

'Improving consumer understanding of the simple everyday switches to reduce consumption of saturated fat is key to the success of the Food Standards Agency programme. At Unilever, we will continue to highlight to consumers the heart health benefits of switching from butter to polyunsaturated spreads, as we have done with Flora for nearly 50 years.'
Dave Lewis, Chairman, Unilever UK & Ireland

'Walkers is pleased to support the next phase of the FSA's saturated fat campaign. We have a long history of saturated fat reduction – since 2003 we have reduced saturated fat across almost all of our crisps and snacks ranges by around 80%, removing by 2008 an estimated 40,000 tonnes of saturates from the British diet.'
Ian Ellington, Chief Executive, Walkers

'Brakes is pleased to be supporting the FSA saturated fat campaign. We are delighted to offer 1% milk to foodservice customers nationwide from January 2010. This gives caterers an easy way to reduce saturated fat in drinks and recipes. Brakes is committed to driving healthier eating in the foodservice market and offer a wide variety of food that can be used to create exciting and healthier menus.'
Eileen Steinbock, Head of Health and Nutrition, Brakes