Strict advertising rules for food and drink products classed as high in fat, sugar and salt (HFSS) came into force in the UK this January. The impact has been close to an on-screen blackout for dozens of high profile snack and baked goods brands.
Under the new regulations, online advertising for products that meet the HFSS criteria has been banned outright. Social media ads, paid influencer endorsements, paid search, on-page display ads - all gone. TV adverts for the same products are now restricted until after the 9pm curfew. Brands that based a significant part of their identity on their appeal to children can no longer be advertised where children can easily see them.
The move is the latest in the long-running public health campaign pursued by successive governments to tackle obesity and promote healthier eating. The direct cost to the NHS of treating obesity-related conditions is estimated at £11.4bn a year, while the total societal costs when you add in lost productivity and social care are in excess of £120bn.
The latest rules are widely considered the hardest hitting yet. Products are scored using a tool that balances their overall nutritional profile against the amounts of fat, sugar and salt they contain. This means that many outwardly ‘healthy’ products with strong nutritional credentials, such as a number of breakfast cereals, still fall foul of the ban due to the amount of fat, sugar and salt added, usually for flavour purposes.
And as this article points out, snack and impulse-friendly food and drink brands rely on high visibility and visual appeal. Cutting off their presence on visual channels will hurt recognition on the shelf. That’s the whole point, of course.
The food and drink industry has fought and lobbied long and hard for its right to advertise freely. But public health is a greater good and it’s hard to argue against in the long run. Just ask the alcohol and tobacco industries.
At least many snack and baked goods brands have a ‘can’t beat them, join them’ option. Reformulation to reduce fat, sugar and salt content is an obvious way to avoid the advertising restrictions. Manufacturers are understandably wary about tinkering with much-loved recipes in case they fail the unimportant taste test. But the risks of that are reducing rapidly thanks to the pace of innovation in functional additives.
More and more ingredients are appearing on the market that combine flavour AND nutritional benefits. One of these is GOFOS. Produced by sweetener and starch manufacturer Galam, GOFOS is a pre-biotic fibre derived from plants. Dietary fibre is a big deal in its own right, given the fact that 91% of adults in the UK don’t get their recommended daily intake. Fibre plays an essential role in gut health, which in turn is critically important for controlling blood sugar, lowering cholesterol, and protecting heart health.
But GOFOS has another extra special quality up its sleeve. It’s a complex carbohydrate made up of fructose molecules, belong to the fructan family. That makes it mildly sweet, about 30% as sweet as sugar. But because its more complex molecular structure means it can’t be digested by humans (which classifies it as a fibre), its calorie count only 2 kcal/g. So it’s a sweet additive that helps to boost gut health while reducing calories.
GOFOS is already a hit with producers in the ‘functional snack’ category, adding only 2kcal/g, sweetness and pre-biotic benefits to things like energy and workout bars. Its potential use cases span the full range of the baked goods and confectionary snack sector. Not only does it provide a semi-sweet sugar alternative that would help manufacturers avoid the HFSS ban. It carries proven nutritional health benefits that open the door to a new era of healthy but tasty snack positioning.