Sugars


“To claim a ‘reduced in sugar’ label, the overall sugar level in a product needs to be 30% lower than the market average”


The global bakery industry has needed to react by developing healthier, sugar-reduced alternatives to their popular cake and pastry offerings. According to research undertaken by Innova Database in recent years European sweet bakery products with a sugar-reduced claim recorded an average annual growth of 13%.


Guilt-free consumption Sarah Browner, Market Research & Insights Manager at Dawn Foods Global agrees with Innova. She says: “Consumers today are looking for indulgent bakery products without feeling the associated guilt. Thus, we are seeing a growing number of products promoting their sugar reduced attributes.” The sugar reduction trend is being further pushed by international programmes – such as the World Health Organisation’s (WHO) Sugar & Calorie Reduction Network – which has been created to promote healthier diets as well as reduce overweight and obesity levels across the WHO European region.


The Network is bringing together policymakers and health experts from all 53 of the region’s member states, to explore ways to achieve sugar and calorie reduction, respecting national food systems and food traditions, and the regulatory environment. The UK was chosen by WHO to lead the Network for the first three-year term. The current guidance on sugar intake in the UK was updated in 2015, based on scientific data backed by WHO. Today, it is recommended that free sugars should ideally contribute no more than 5% to individual energy intakes of UK consumers.


As part of the WHO initiative, the UK government has more recently set out legislation which is expected to come into force in two stages – location restrictions, which concern the placement of HFSS items in retail outlets, will come into effect in October 2022, while restrictions prohibiting the sale of volume promotions, such as 50% extra free or BOGOF, in HFSS categories is expected to come into effect in October 2023. The aim of the legislation is to drive a reduction in the sugar content of products High in Fat, Salt and Sugar (HFSS) by restricting some promotional activity and the placement of products affected by the regulations. Bakery products affected will include cakes, morning goods, sweet biscuits and pastries. The scheme requires all foods and beverages in the UK


to be given a score based on the nutrient profiling model (NPM) – developed by the UK Food Standards Agency and used in the UK since 2007. The NPM takes into account calories, sugar, salt and saturated fat content, whilst looking favourably at the inclusion of more healthy ingredients such as fruits, nuts, seeds as well as fibre and protein. The final scoring of products will affect how they can be promoted in- store as well as TV and media advertising.


Scores are calculated by giving a total score for calories, saturated fat, sugar and salt, (Category A) a score is then also calculated for fruit and vegetable content, nuts, seeds, total fibre and protein (Category C). The Category C score is then minused from the category A score to give a total final NPM score. A score of 4 or more for food and 1 or more for beverages is considered HFSS or ‘unhealthy’. Reformulation to avoid the restrictions that HFSS will place on products can take a number of different approaches or a combination of approaches to make products ‘less unhealthy’.


Taste challenges


Advice from Synergy states that reducing sugar, salt or fat is the obvious starting point, but this can present a number of taste challenges including loss of sweetness, mouthfeel and taste delivery. Product structure will also be impacted with these ingredients being so functional across a number of recipes. It says that taste modulation solutions can help to


Highlighting healthy credentials


Boka is relaunching its full range of cereal bars and multigrain granola with a vegan- friendly promise and a new look and feel to ensure it does not fall foul of forthcoming HFSS restrictions. “The new bars are 100% HFSS compliant,” according to Franco Beer, founder of BOKA Foods. The company spent six years developing the new low sugar, low fat and low salt range of cereal bars which are under 100 calories a bar and the rebrand is designed to ensure that consumers are able to quickly identify the nutritional health benefits of the bars.


bakeryproduction.co.uk Kennedy’s Bakery Production May/June 2022 19


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