Fighting the Sugar Battle

The UK government has taken the lead in fighting obesity with the launch of its childhood obesity plan, writes Andre Erasmus. It’s a program that will initially focus on the categories that make the largest contributions to children’s sugar intake, including breakfast cereals, biscuits, cakes and confectionery.

The plan asks the food and drink industry to reduce the sugar in products, which are popular with children, by 5% over the next year. It says the ultimate target is a 20% reduction in sugar, with Public Health England monitoring voluntary progress over the next four years.

But will it work? The plan, announced mid-August, has been attacked by health experts, campaigners, MPs and the boss of Sainsbury’s, one of the UK’s biggest supermarkets.

The Food and Drink Federation’s Director General Ian Wright said the focus on sugar reduction in the plan is “flawed as it focuses too strongly on the role of this single nutrient, when obesity is caused by excess calories from any nutrient.”

What will this mean to bakers? Gordon Polson, director of the Federation of Bakers (FOB) in the UK, said that “reformulation is not the only option in the plan,” while acknowledging that Federation members have always taken their responsibilities seriously and “like salt reduction, sugar reduction is challenging.”

He added that changing formulation and processes “cannot be the same across all products,” as this would depend on each product, its recipe and characteristics.

The FOB says data also show that the intake of sugars in the UK has declined over the last decade, while rates of obesity and diabetes have been increasing.

It adds: “Contrary to a lot of media articles and stories, the vast majority of sliced white bread made in the UK has no added sugars. During the bread making process, some of the starch in wheat flour is broken down into simple sugars, but this is used by the yeast during fermentation and very little remains in the finished bread. Most UK sliced and wrapped bread easily meets the definition for a low sugar food.”

Can formulation and processes change? The internationally renowned Campden BRI, which specializes in science and technology for the food and drink industry, is offering a course later this year covering the background to sugar reduction, including reasons for the need to reduce sugar, government targets and the role that sugar plays in products.

“Approaches to reduce sugar in food via the incorporation of alternative ingredients will be covered. One session will cover relevant legislation including information on health and nutrition claims,” Campden said.

There’s also the possibility of using polyols (sugar-free sweeteners). Indeed, way back in 2012, writers Lyn Nabors and Theresa Hedrick suggested that polyols are in a unique position to assist with reduced sugar or sugar-free reformulations. Since they are only partially digested and absorbed, they can reduce calories and complement sugar’s functionality.

They wrote: “Polyols and sugars have several physical properties that are important in food processing including solubility, sweetness, crystallization, viscosity, temperature stability and browning. Understanding the differences in physical and functional characteristics among polyols is vital for selecting the most suitable polyol for a food application.”

Whatever happens, processes might have to change, or substitutes like enzymes found, if more governments take on the fight against sugar. These are interesting times…