The real Smart Swap is the one supermarkets should be doing

Responding to the launch today of 'Smart Swaps' - the latest Change4Life public health campaign - Malcolm Clark, co-ordinator of the Children's Food Campaign, said:

“We welcome Change4Life’s continued focus on the hidden nasties in our food, in particular the added sugar in many of the drinks and cereals on supermarket shelves.  But these good messages risk being undermined unless there is real change in what is sold and promoted to us in store.  The supermarkets should be joining in the swapping: permanently replacing promotions on unhealthy products with those for healthier items.”

“There is nothing smart about Public Health England partnering with the food industry without expecting more in return.  Yet Nestlé, General Mills, Kellogg's, Coca-Cola and Dairy Crest - the manufacturers behind many of the sugary cereals, sugary drinks and high fat cheeses and butter that we are being told to swap away from - have refused to sign up to the new traffic light labelling scheme.  And Asda, one of the supermarkets chosen to front up the Change4Life voucher scheme, ranks bottom of our list for making healthy choices easier in store.”

“Change4Life vouchers have not always been good value, with cheaper healthier own brand alternatives available without the vouchers in previous years. We hope this is one thing Change4Life has improved upon this year.”

Contact: For interviews and further information, please contact Malcolm Clark on 07733322148 or malcolm@sustainweb.org

Notes:

1) Since 2013 Public Health England (PHE) has taken charge of the Change4Life initiative from the Department of Health. PHE is an operationally autonomous executive agency of the Department of Health.

2) The new Change4Life public health campaign 'Smart Swaps' launches on 2 January 2014 and encourages the public to make one easy swap to help cut sugar and fat from their everyday snacks, drinks and meals. The campaign is backed by TV advertising and £840,000 worth of vouchers for products at Aldi, Asda, Co-operative and Lidl supermarkets.

3) The five simple Smart Swaps are:

(i) Sugary drinks to diet, sugar free or no added sugar drinks or to milk or water
(ii) Cheese to reduced fat cheese
(iii) Butter to lower fat butters or spreads
(iv) Sugary cereal to low sugar cereal
(v) Whole milk to semi-skimmed; or semi-skimmed to 1% fat or skimmed milk

4) For Children's Food Campaign analysis of previous Change4Life campaigns, see:
(Jan 2011) (Jan 2011) (Aug 2011) (Jan 2013)

5) Nestlé, General Mills, Kellogg's, Coca-Cola and Dairy Crest all feature on our Labelling Wall of Shame for not having yet fully committed to implement the new Department of Health-backed front-of-pack nutritional labelling scheme.

NB Nestlé will be displaying the new nutrition label on the brands they fully own, but not on the ones which they produce jointly with others, which includes their cereals (a joint venture with General Mills).

6) Asda was found to be the worst offender for promoting sweets and chocolate at the checkout in our Checkouts Checked Out report (2012) and again in a recent Slimming World survey (2013)