Eating leaner meat, cutting down on cakes and biscuits and opting for stronger varieties of cheese should slash the levels of saturated fat consumed in the UK, the country’s food watchdog said today (10 February).
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The Food Standards Agency has launched a campaign to encourage consumers to eat less saturated fat in a bid to reduce the numbers of deaths from heart disease and strokes.
UK consumers eat on average 20% more saturated fat than the recommended maximum level, said the FSA, which has also launched a TV ad to show the impact a diet heavy in saturated fat can have on the heart.
FSA chief executive Tim Smith said: “People say they do know that saturated fat is bad for them but they don’t necessarily link it to heart disease and what they are eating. It’s important they make that connection, because heart disease is the UK’s number one killer – one in three of us will die as a result.”
Smith added: “There are simple ways we can cut down the amount of saturated fat we all eat and protect our health. We need to eat leaner meat and a bit less cheese, switch to lower-fat milks and eat healthier snacks, cutting down on cakes and biscuits.”
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By GlobalDataThe Food and Drink Federation said UK food manufacturers had worked to reduce the level of saturated fat in their products.
The FDF pointed to “real changes” in the type of products, including savoury snacks, ice cream and canned goods, bought by UK consumers.
“Changing the recipes of much-loved British brands so that they are lower in saturated fat is a complex task, as it needs to be done in a way that does not impact functionality, quality or price,” an FDF spokesman said. “But our members have been rising to this particular challenge for a number of years and are now leading the world when it comes to the reformulation of popular products.”
Smith praised moves that UK food manufacturers had made to cut saturated fat and urged the industry to continue that work.
“Supermarkets and manufacturers have done some good work, so that now when we’re shopping there is an increasing range of lower-saturated-fat foods available and better labelling, and we’d like to see more of this,” Smith said. “It is important that we work together to increase the variety of healthier foods available and continue to address this important public health issue together.”
