Our products

Making our customers’ baskets healthier

Making food healthier is about reducing some nutrients and increasing others. Some of these are too prevalent in a typical diet, while others are too low, such as fibre and omega 3.

We have over 100 product developers and technologists working to progressively reduce levels of fat, saturated fat, sugar, salt and additives. They are also looking at removing some of the more common allergens so that our food can be enjoyed by customers with special diets. At the same time, we are improving on how best to communicate portion guidance to our customers so that they can better manage their overall food consumption.

Reducing saturated fat

Fat reduction has always been a key point in our reformulation strategy. Back in 2007, we removed hydrogenated vegetable oil (the manufactured form of transfat) from all our products.

Saturated fat intake remain high in the UK population so we have made this a key area of focus for us.

Dairy products are one of the major contributors of saturated fat to the UK diet, which makes them a high priority for us. You can see from the case study how much progress we’ve made in this area. These are all real examples of our commitment to the UK Food Standards Agency’s Energy and Saturated Fat Intake Programme and to making our customers’ baskets healthier.

Case study

Dairy

We launched 1% fat milk in April 2008, and since then we have sold 64.3 million litres. Following this success of our own brand 1% fat milk, we have now introduced a branded organic version and a UHT version and together with our own 1% fat milk we estimate that we've helped our customers reduce their saturated fat consumption by over 140 tonnes*. We have worked over the past year to reformulate existing dairy products and introduce new, healthier ones:

1. In September 2009 we introduced fat percentage labelling on the front of our own brand yogurt helping customers make informed choices.
2. Starting January 2010, we re-launched a range of 20 cheese products, all of which have between 30% and 50% less fat than standard versions.
3. Since March 2010 our flavoured milk has been made from semi-skimmed milk, not whole milk.
4. In June 2010, to help our customers manage portion sizes, we introduced portion markings on cream cartons.

*Based on 12 months, sales of 1% fat milk, assuming all these customers transferred from semi-skimmed milk

Reducing salt

We were one of the first retailers to set tough targets for salt reduction for our own brand ranges and have been reducing salt in these products for over 12 years. Salt reduction remains an important focus for us when developing and redeveloping products. The taste, safety and quality of our products is incredibly important to us and we strongly believe that our customers should not have to compromise; this is why we have a step-by-step approach to salt reduction. We are striving to achieve and make progress against the Food Standards Agency's original 2010 salt targets.

Reducing sugar

We are reducing the amount of sugar in our products wherever we can find a way to do so without compromising on taste and quality. For example, we have reduced the sugar content of all our own brand squash lines by 10%.

Removing additives

For the past four years we have been working hard to remove artificial colours and flavours, flavour enhancers, intense sweeteners (excluding sucralose) and the benzoate group of preservatives from all our own brand food and drinks. We do not use the benzoate group of preservatives in any of our finished products, nor do we use flavour enhancers such as MSG and the only intense sweetener we use is sucralose.

We have led the way in removing additives from our products and are particularly proud of our achievements in confectionary, soft drinks, breakfast cereals, stocks, gravies and yogurts.

We were the first retailer to remove sulphite ammonia caramel (E150d) from cola drinks, and our lime cordial was the first to use only natural colour. We no longer use any of the colours identified in the Southampton study, and the only own brand foods that still contain artificial colours are our canned peas and mint sauce, and a small number of products containing cherries.

Allergies and intolerances

We aim to be the first choice for customers with special diets, and were the first major retailer to develop a ‘freefrom’ category as far back as 2002. This has now been re-launched with the backing of major online and in-store support. We have improved taste, quality and packaging, and added over 100 new and improved lines. With 228 products in all, this is by far our biggest ever freefrom range.

In addition, customers will now be able to print off monthly updated lists and our new coeliac leaflets from our website, which will make it easier for them to see which of our own brand products are suitable for their allergy or intolerance.

*at February 2010 (Nielsen Market Analysis Report, February 2010; 52 weeks)

Case study

Be Good To Yourself

We re-launched our 'Be Good to Yourself' range in January 2010 and have now introduced 60 new and improved lines. The main focus was to make sure that our products tasted even better than they did before, even products like cheese, houmous and coleslaw, which are traditionally high in fat. We now have 250 lines in the range, from classic favourites such as chicken arrabbiata and sticky toffee pudding, to newer dishes like Singapore noodles all of them either less than 3% fat or with 30% less fat than a standard version. Within the range, 67% of products are low in saturated fat. It’s proving extremely popular already, with our market share up to 27.3%