UKHospitality: Food for thought

With so many issues affecting the hospitality sector right now, businesses, including contract caterers, can be forgiven for missing some of what’s coming out of government concerning food and drink legislation. January, for example, saw the implementation of advertising restrictions for larger companies on less healthy food, with certain products being banned from appearing on TV and in on-demand programme services between 5.30am and 9pm, and in paid online media at any time.

Then there are two big matters for contract caterers to take note of that are set to come out of last year’s government 10 Year Health Plan – namely mandatory healthy food reporting for large foodservice companies and changes to high fat salt sugar (HFSS) definitions.

On healthy food reporting, the government is committed to introducing mandatory reporting and targets for larger food businesses by 2029. Still in its early stages, and with a public consultation expected later this year, UKHospitality has been involved from the start, providing feedback from across our food business membership, including contract caterers. This early-stage activity included a recent session with our nutrition group – one of several UKHospitality expert information hubs through which members can learn from one another and share best practice – and government officials.

Emerging from that is the need to ensure avoiding a situation in which reporting is designed and focused on retail/production, with the hospitality sector featuring only as an afterthought. Initial signs, though, are encouraging, with our feedback from the likes of contract caterers being taken on board, something that should help ensure a reporting system that works for all hospitality operating models

At the same time, the government is changing the rules around those foods considered healthy, and those that are not. Currently, food is scored against the 2003 Nutrient Profiling Model (NPM): essentially, a meal or food/drink product is allotted a score that determines whether it’s considered HFSS (less healthy) or not (healthy). Based on this system, the government plans to introduce an updated NPM, which is likely to see a number of foods currently scored as healthy, instead rated unhealthy.

Clearly, such a change will have a significant effect on contract caterers, manufacturers, retailers and the wider food supply chain. And crucially, because the newly introduced advertising ban will use the updated model to determine what should be restricted, many more products could potentially be brought into the scope of those restrictions. A government consultation process is already underway on this issue, and unsurprisingly we can expect plenty of food industry bodies and companies to make their thoughts known, including UKHospitality.

Lots going on in this area at the moment, then, and there’s a clear need to ensure that we achieve sensible and proportionate outcomes concerning both mandatory healthy food reporting and HFSS definitions. To that end, through our nutrition group and other forums – including for contract caterers and food service management – UKHospitality will continue liaising with members and working closely with government.

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