As part of the government’s strategy to cut childhood and adult obesity, Public Health England (PHE) and the Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC) have announced their plans to reduce 20% of calories in popular foods by 2024 in the Calorie reduction: the scope and ambition for action report published today.
As with the sugar reduction programme, it challenges the industry to reduce calories in 3 ways:
- change the recipe of products
- reduce portion size
- encourage consumers to purchase lower calorie products
Categories of food covered by the programme include pizzas, ready meals, ready-made sandwiches, meat products and savoury snacks.
The report also includes new data on children’s daily calorie consumption. Depending on their age, overweight and obese boys consume between 140 to 500 calories too many each day and for girls, it is 160 to 290 when compared to those with healthy body weights. Adults consume on average 200 to 300 calories too many each day.
In addition, the government is planning the launch of the One You campaign, encouraging adults to consume 400 calories at breakfast, and 600 for lunch and dinner. Major high street brands are partnering with PHE on the campaign, signposting to meals that meet the 400-600-600 tip. Total daily calorie intake recommendations remain at 2,000 for women and 2,500 for men.