Healthier Food

Defining Healthier Food

In 2021 our specialist nutrition team developed a nutrient profiling system (NPS) to define healthy, healthier and least healthy products.

The system developed is based on Public Health England’s existing nutrient criteria for front of pack traffic light labelling including salt, sugar, saturated fat, fat and calories levels per proportion. Our NPS has been applied across our entire own brand permanent food range with no products defined as ‘healthy’ or ‘healthier’ having any red traffic lights.

Products have been categorised based on the following:

Healthy1 or less 'ambers' and 0 'reds'
Healthier2 or more 'ambers' and 0 'reds'
Least Healthy1 or more 'reds'

Defining 'healthier' food

In 2021 our specialist nutrition team developed a nutrient profiling system (NPS) to define healthy, healthier and least healthy products and have applied this to our entire permanent own brand food range. Our system is based on Public Health England’s existing nutrient criteria for front of pack traffic light labelling, focusing on fat, saturated fat, sugar and salt contents.  Our approach ensures that all our products defined as ‘healthy’ and ‘healthier’ have no red traffic lights.

Products have been categorised based on the following:

Healthy1 or less 'ambers' and 0 'reds'
Healthier2 or more 'ambers' and 0 'reds'
Least Healthy

1 or more 'reds'

Our approach is simple, enabling our technical teams to apply the system to our entire permanent range to easily track sales shifts and identify strategic areas for improvement. This information is disseminated across key departments in the business and used as a key metric in which our improvements in nutritional values are monitored and opportunities for improvement identified.