Skip to main content

Is sugar the new tobacco? Yes!....unless we do more

Ian Quinn's article in The Grocer, "FDF head calls out NHS boss over sugar claims" [subscription may be required] covers the Food and Drink Federation's response to a comment NHS head Simon Stevens' made in a BBC interview over the weekend in which he suggested the obesity crisis was the "new smoking".

Soft Drink and Tobacco parallels

As someone who’s worked in both the soft drink and tobacco industries, I empathise with Simon Stevens linking obesity with smoking. After sitting through thousands of interviews with smokers up and down the country talking about obstacles to quitting tobacco etc. – and observing numerous food & drink consumer research before and since then – it’s clear that there are huge parallels between triggers of the emerging obesity crisis and smoking e.g.
pitched initially as “cool” and a “lifestyle/generational choice” (especially soft drinks) but later becoming hard to shake off owing to physical addiction, habitual consumption linked to ocassion advertising (mealtime, sports), and the lack of real alternatives.
Whether you like them or not, smoking prevalence only moved off the stubborn 20% level when electronic cigarettes became available in local stores. They are certainly not perfect devices but present a real alternative for folks looking for a safer daily boost and/or to help them quit. (They've even won the "endorsement" of ASH and other anti-tobacco industry advocates).

Old soft drink habits die hard 

Ian Wright, new FDF DG, has no choice but defend his constituents’ position. Its fair to say that members have been trying to do their bit through "Responsibility Deal" pledges. Just recently, Tesco committed to reducing the amount of added sugar in its own-label soft drinks by 5% incrementally every year and Coca-Cola Enterprise announced a 10% calorie cut pledge by 2020.
But is it enough to placate lobby groups and consumers' concerns? Given the reality that Tesco stores account for ~30% of all soft drink sales ("branded" or otherwise) and Coke's headline number is actually set against a 2010 baseline, some would say there is room still for manufacturers to reformulate to bring down sugar levels etc.  
 Regardless of industry efforts to develop more natural, healthier soft drinks, there is still a another issue that is not being dealt with through the "Responsibility Deal" process. To many, the industry appears to be dragging its feet on fixing the "in-store" shelf so that better for you and reasonably priced soft drinks are more readily available and in prominent positions. Ian needs only to step outside of WC2 and visit a few local shops to see what’s actually on shelf today to realise there is still alot to be done.
I counted ~200 facings for soft drinks in my local shop’s chiller this morning (West London) but only 10% of them were regular bottled waters or low calorie / low sugar drinks10%!  
How can habits change when the industry does not ensure healthier, reasonably priced alternatives are readily available on the shelf?  

More must be done to avoid sugar taxes and display bans!

Retailers both big and small need to stop hiding behind "sorry I can't list X healthier drink because I need to ensure availability of Coke" and fix their shelves so that consumers have a real choice! Otherwise, the food & drink industry will sleep walk their way into sugar taxes and display bans (we all agree that's not a good outcome for consumers or employees).

Whether the "Responsibility Deal" stays or goes.....a visit to any local store shows that the job’s far from done! Isn't it time that stakeholders put aside vested interests and show instead true leadership on helping to solve the obesity crisis? Remember, it is the consumer we ultimately serve.They deserve better.

Photo credit: The Vancover Sun, Sept 2014, file photo.

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Is Kraft Heinz dropping the Unilever acquisition just an interlude?

(c) 2012 Convergence Alimentaire blog image I cut my FMCG marketing teeth  at Unilever and ended my full-time global food & drink industry career at Kraft/Mondelez. I now run a  healthier drinks startup  business ( drinktg.com ) alongside a global innovation consultancy where I work as an  "extrapreneur"  supporting companies wanting to remake their portfolios to better fit emerging consumer needs for healthier products......so I am perhaps in a unique position to give a point of view.  If you are Dutch or British, you  feel closer culturally to Unilever  and few people living in the UK will have forgotten Kraft's poor treatment of people & assets post  Cadbury's acquisition . However, the reality is that the  vision and values of both companies are not so dissimilar  and both are facing the same  fundamental shifts  in consumer behaviour & needs in relation to "big FMCG/CPG" brands in both developed a...

Why portion and serving sizes should be left for the FSA to decide

Like much of the developed world, t he UK has an obesity problem . 60% of the population is overweight or obese from eating too much and exercising too little. Reducing portion sizes a proven intervention that changes health behaviour and helps to reduce obesity There have been numerous studies since the early 1990s that show reducing  portion sizes  of the food & drink we consume would help reverse the obesity epidemic. BBC health editor,  James Gallagher , reported in 2015 [ link ] the findings of research based on 6,711 people that took part in a wide range of clinical trials. Professor  Gareth Hollands  (among others) found that eliminating " large portions could cut up to 279 calories a day out of people's diets " [ link ].... equivalent to an extra kg of fat to contend with every month. Research in the British Medical Journal states that  reducing portion sizes  becomes easier when there is availability of smaller pack sizes  ...

Unilever poaches Pukka and it's impact on tea category growth in Europe

Wessanen 's purchase of Clipper Tea in 2012 was a good fit from the start given both companies' ethical credentials. If a recent BBC investigation into ethical practices among leading British tea brands is true (link to BBC story HERE ) , this M&A may hurt  Pukka Herbs ' clean image among millennials. However, the bigger issue in my view is the impact on growth of the $5bil European tea category in the mid-term given increasing retail market dominance by one company (Unilever also owns Liptons, PGTips, Pure Leaf, T2, Lyons among other tea brands). Link to article on Unilever's acquisition of Pukka HERE .