Consumers

Here at Briefing we are known for taking a pretty sceptical view of the wilder flight of fancies of the campaigning NGOs on corporate responsibility issues, so we think that gives us licence to puncture a few bubbles of corporate delusion too. Health claims is one of them.

Put simply, some companies’ claim to have discovered the benefits of healthy eating and drinking out of the goodness of their own hearts is just so much hogwash. There are really only two drivers of action. First, enough consumers are turning away from salt, sugar and fat to make it essential that the market orientated businesses react with ‘lite’ lines and some effort to reformulate their other products.

But much more powerful has been the genuine threat of mandatory labelling and bans on some advertising. Frankly, the Food Standards Agency and Ofcom, aided by media and NGO ‘scare’ campaigns, have done more in a short time than years of corporate soul searching.

Unfortunately the old military adage "grab them by the balls and their hearts and minds will follow" is as profound here as ever.

RELATED NEWS

Tackling health and obesity

Food companies can make a bigger effort in addressing consumer health issues, according to a report by Insight Investment and the International Business Leaders Forum. A Recipe for Success – how food companies can profit from consumer health offers a framework and set of recommendations aimed at helping food companies to address consumer health and obesity issues. It also offers examples of best practice covering topics from risk management to marketing and advertising and the promotion of physical activity.

Contact - Insight Investment, 020 7930 5454, www.insightinvestment.com; IBLF & 020 7467 3600 www.iblf.org

Asda shakes up salt intake

Wal-Mart-owned supermarket Asda has announced that it will meet the Food Standard Agency’s voluntary salt reduction targets across all its own label food categories by the end of this year. The FSA aims to reduce the daily salt intake in the UK to 6g per person by 2010 and is working with food retailers to reduce the salt in processed foods. A white paper on public health – Choosing Health – was published in November 2006 and sets out the key principles for supporting people to make healthier choices. Through it the government aims to provide practical support to motivate people as well as making access to healthier choices easier.

The announcement means Asda will meet the required target nearly three years ahead of the 2010 deadline set by the FSA. The method which Asda has adopted to achieve this goal is to reformulate a number of its products to reduce their salt content, being careful to ensure their taste is maintained.

Contact - Asda, www.asda.co.uk

Cutting out trans-fats

A number of supermarkets are going beyond wavering EU legislation and cutting trans-fats from their own-brand lines through a voluntary commitment made by the British Retail Consortium on February 1. According to the BRC, the EU is delaying the development of guidelines to restrict trans-fats in food and therefore the retailers have chosen to take action voluntarily instead. These include Iceland, Sainsbury’s, Marks & Spencer, Co-op, Waitrose, Boots and Asda. Trans-fats can form naturally in food but are also industrially added to extend the shelf-life of products and over consumption can lead to obesity.

Contact - British Retail Consortium, 020 7854 8900, www.brc.org.uk

O2 helps protect children

O2 has signed up to EU-wide guidelines on promoting safer mobile phone use with children and teenagers. Through this the mobile phone operator has strengthened its ties with Childnet International, an organisation that aims to make the internet a safer place for children, which has produced a checklist of questions for parents to ask a mobile operator when they buy a mobile phone for their child. O2 has also joined the Internet Watch Foundation, an organisation that works with the internet industry, government and police and provides a ‘hotline’ for the public and IT professionals who may come across potentially illegal content on the internet and wish to report it.

Contact - O2, www.o2.com/protectourchildren; Childnet International, www.childnet-int.org; Internet Watch Foundation, www.iwf.org.uk