Ulrick & Short has launched a campaign to raise awareness of the options for clean-label healthy reformulation, while also assisting in understanding the implications of upcoming HFSS legislation.
HFSS legislation is designed to improve the nutritional profiles of food in the UK. From October 2022, products from more than 15 categories will be given a health score based upon their levels of saturated fat, sugar, calories & salt, as well as fibre, protein, and fruit, veg & nut content. If products score 4 or more, they will be subject to restrictions on marketing, volume promotions & in-store placements.
Ulrick & Short’s R&D Manager, Danni Schroeter, said: “We have 4 main avenues through which we can help with healthy reformulation & HFSS scores.” These are fat reduction, sugar reduction, protein fortification and fibre fortification. The company says it can enable a 50% reduction in fat and sugar, replacing the functional properties of both, while it can enrich products with proteins and fibre for better nutritional profiles and claims. The company says all of this can be achieved with little to no impact on product flavour.
The company is also offering reformulation training designed to demonstrate ways of improving health scores & nutritional profiles specific to manufacturers’ applications.
It has made various strategic partnerships to strengthen its reformulation offering. Head of Marketing & Communications at U&S, Robert Lambert, said: “We have expanded our expertise & worked with academic & commercial partners to become an authority on healthy reformulation”.
Lambert added: “In the academic sphere, we have partnered with Harper Adams Food Technology Department – we’re collaborating with students to develop a clean-label, plant-based & HFSS compliant snacking product using U&S ingredient technologies.”
The company recently partnered with Food and Drink Federation Scotland’s Reformul8 Partnership. The initiative offers advice to Scottish manufacturers in order to improve nutritional profiles, as well as “linking up all the stakeholders involved in getting a healthier, reformulated product onto the dinner table.”
Joanne Burns, Reformulation for Health Manager at Food and Drink Federation Scotland, said, “Food producers cannot reformulate alone… The Partnership connects multiple stakeholders involved in reformulation… includ[ing] ingredient suppliers, food manufacturers to wholesalers, retail, catering, and industry stakeholders.”