FSA starts new work on nutrient profiling

The Food Standards Agency (FSA​) first began researching nutrient profiling, which would limit the kind of foods that can be promoted for health benefits to those with acceptable levels of salt, sugar and fat, in 2003 after the European Commission's proposed draft regulation on adding nutrients to foods.

The new work is being carried out as part of a government action plan on tackling children's diets and may be used by the UK's broadcasting regulator Ofcom to restrict advertising of certain foods to children.

However a spokesperson for FSA said the model, which may or may not be taken up by Ofcom, could also be used for other purposes.

These could include the European health claims regulation, which also included a requirement for nutrient profiling in the original draft proposed by the Commission.

The European Parliament has recently voted to remove this article from the law, but consumer groups are unhappy with the vote, and will put pressure on governments to keep nutrient profiling, considered the keystone of the whole law, in the new legislation.

The FSA's new work, commissioned following more than 80 responses to a consultation on the initial research, suggests that the UK government is prepared to implement nutrient profiling and will have a model to demonstrate its efficacy.

The results of this next stage of research will be published later in the summer.