Healthy Food Partnership Reformulation Program: Wave 1, two-year progress

• Of the participating products in scope for sodium reformulation, 14% (155) recorded a decrease in sodium content between June 2020 and June 2022. Sodium levels of these products declined by an average of 3% over the period.
• The population impact of the sodium reduction was estimated to be 8.3 mg per person per day, equivalent to a 0.3% reduction from the total sodium intake of 3,045 mg per person per day in 2020-21.
• Of the participating products in scope for saturated fat reformulation, 11% (11) recorded a decrease in their saturated fat content. The average decrease in the amount of saturated fat was 0.5% between June 2020 and June 2022. 
• The population impact of the reduction in saturated fat intake was 0.1 gram per person per day, which was less than 0.2% of the total 36.3 grams of saturated fat consumed per person per day estimated in 2020-21.

In 2015, the Australian Government established the Healthy Food Partnership (HFP) as a voluntary collaboration between the food industry, the public health sector and government. Its goal is to enhance health and reduce overweight and obesity by improving the food environment and influencing Australian's ability to make healthier food choices. A key initiative of the HFP is the Partnership Reformulation Program (PRP) which aims to reduce the Australian population’s consumption of sodium, saturated fat and sugar from processed food products.

The reformulation phase of the PRP is being conducted from 2020 to 2026 with eligible food categories being divided into waves. Each wave specifies targets for the maximum levels of sodium, saturated fat and total sugars content within specified food categories (e.g. ‘Soups’) that Australian companies can voluntarily work towards over a four-year period. 

The four-year implementation period for Wave 1 of the PRP commenced on 1 July 2020 following the introduction of voluntary reformulation targets for:

• Sodium (across 27 food categories)
• Saturated fat (across 5 food categories) 

This article provides an update on the progress towards the reformulation targets at the two-year mark (from June 2020 to June 2022) based on reporting by participating manufacturers. The analysis includes the number of participating products that met the sodium/saturated fat targets at each period, the change in average sodium/saturated fat content (per 100g) and the reformulation impact at the population level. For details on the methods and assumptions used to measure population impact see the Methodology section.

Summary of industry supplied product data

Sodium data was provided for 1,110 products across 27 categories of processed foods. The leading categories (by number of products) included:

• Leavened breads (362)
• Cakes, muffins, and slices (186)
• Crumbed and battered meat and poultry (69)
• Other savoury sauces (62)
• Soups (56)

How much dietary sodium can be accounted for by the participating products?

When the data from manufacturers was integrated with 2020-21 scanner data sales, it was estimated that the participating products contributed a total of 246 mg per capita per day at baseline (June 2020) which was equivalent to 8.1% of total dietary sodium at baseline (3,045 mg per person per day). However, most (59%) of dietary sodium comes from products that are beyond the scope of the 27 food categories selected for sodium reformulation.  A ‘like with like’ comparison to the same 27 food categories shows the participating products accounted for 20% of dietary sodium although there was wide variation across food categories.  

The food categories with highest coverage of sodium at baseline were:

• Sausages, with participating products accounting for 52% of all the sodium in sausages
• Leavened bread (49%)
• Cakes, muffins and slices (44%)
• Pizza (29%)

In contrast, the food categories with the lowest sodium coverage among the participating products were:

• Salt and vinegar snacks, where the participating products accounted for 0.9% of sodium from salt and vinegar snacks
• Gravies and finishing sauces (1.2%)
• Asian cooking sauces (1.5%)
• Potato snacks (3.1%)
• Flavoured savoury biscuits, crackers and ‘grain-cake’ biscuits (3.1%)

Reformulation progress against sodium targets

Over one in ten (155) of the participating products that were part of the Wave 1 PRP recorded a decrease in sodium content between June 2020 and June 2022 and just under half (47% or 73) of these went from exceeding to meeting their respective targets.

Reformulation of these products resulted in the overall proportion of participating products meeting sodium targets increasing from 64% in 2020 to 70% in 2022.

Two categories of plain savoury biscuits were the only categories to have 100% of their participating products meeting the sodium targets. Although both had met the targets at baseline, the plain savoury crackers and biscuits group managed a further decrease of sodium over the two-year period (while plain corn, rice and other ‘grain-cake’ biscuits remained constant).

Other categories with relatively high proportions of products meeting the sodium targets included:

• Cheddar and cheddar style cheese (95% in both periods)
• Flavoured savoury biscuits, crackers and ‘grain-cake’ biscuits with 88% in 2022, which was a decrease from 92% in 2020 (this small decrease is a result of one out of 25 of these biscuits products recording an increase in the sodium over the period).
• Vegetable, grains, and other savoury snacks (88% met sodium targets, up from 75%)
• Crumbed and battered meat and poultry (83%, up from 73%)
• Dry savoury pastries (e.g. sausage rolls, pasties, and hors d'oeuvres) (82%, up from 71%)
• Cakes, muffins, and slices (76% up from 70%)

Food categories with the lowest proportion meeting sodium targets included:

• Salt and vinegar snacks (0%, unchanged)
• Processed deli meat (0%, unchanged)
• Crumbed and battered seafood (28% met sodium targets, up from 17%)

On average, sodium content decreased by 3.0% across all participating products.

The greatest relative reductions in average sodium were seen in:

• Pesto (-6.8%)
• Crumbed and battered seafood (-5.3%)
• Processed cheeses (-5.3%)
• Dry savoury pastries (-5.3%)
• Sausages (-5.2%)

Based on average sodium content at June 2022, 19 out of 27 food categories met their respective targets.

Population impact of sodium reformulation

Taking account of the sales of the products to estimate the apparent consumption impact of reformulation from industry-supplied data shows that on average, consumption of sodium for the Australian population fell by 8.3 mg per person per day which was 0.3% of the estimated total consumption of 3,045mg of sodium per person per day.

Three food categories were responsible for 71% of the overall sodium reduction between June 2020 and June 2022. These were:

• Sausages (which contributed to a 2.8 mg reduction in sodium consumption per person per day), accounted for around one third (33%) of the overall reduction in sodium.
• Leavened breads (-1.8 mg per person per day) contributed just over one fifth (21%) of the overall reduction.
• Cakes, Muffins and Slices (-1.4 mg per person per day) contributed 16% of the overall reduction.

Although -8.3 mg of sodium per person per day is a relatively modest reduction of the total dietary sodium available for consumption, over a year that amounts to 78 tonnes of sodium (or almost 200 tonnes of table salt) being removed from the food supply.

Summary of industry supplied product data

Saturated fat data was provided for 104 products across 5 categories of processed foods. The leading categories and number of products were:

• Pizza (35)
• Sausages (31)
• Wet savoury pastries (e.g. meat pies) (17)
• Dry savoury pastries (e.g. sausage rolls, pasties) (17)

How much dietary saturated fat can be accounted for by the participating products?

When manufacturers’ information was integrated with the 2020-21 scanner data sales, it was estimated that the participating products contributed less than one gram of saturated fat per person per day in each period which represented around 1.5% of total dietary saturated fat (36.3 g per person). However, the vast majority (96%) of the total dietary saturated fat comes from products that were beyond the scope of the 5 food categories selected for saturated fat reformulation in the Wave 1 PRP. 

Within the in-scope food categories, the participating products accounted for 33% of saturated fat from all products in these categories.  By food category, the estimated coverage levels of saturated fat from the participating products were:

• Sausages (54%)
• Pizza (34%)
• Wet savoury pastries (15%)
• Dry savoury pastries (15%)

Reformulation progress against saturated fat targets

Around one in ten (11 of 104) of the participating products recorded a decrease in saturated fat content between June 2020 and June 2022. However, there were also 17 participating products which recorded an increase in saturated fat content over this period. This increase led to a reduction in the proportion of the participating products meeting the reformulation target (58% to 52%).

Among the relevant food categories, the proportion of products meeting the saturated fat targets were:

• Wet pastries and Frankfurts and saveloys (100% of each category in both periods)
• Dry pastries (41% down from 59%)
• Pizza (40% down from 46%)
• Sausages (39% down from 42%)

Even though more products increased saturated fat content than decreased, average saturated fat content of the participating products decreased from 6.1g to 6.0g per 100g.  This was due to the differences in the amounts of saturated fat within products, with sausages in particular driving the overall reduction with a decrease from 7.5g to 7.1g per 100g.

Population impact of saturated fat reformulation

Taking account of the sales of the participating products to estimate the apparent consumption impact of reformulation shows that on average, consumption of saturated fat fell by 0.1g per person per day. Over the 2020-21 year, this equates to a total reduction of 470 tonnes of saturated fat.

By food category, it appears only sausages contributed to the reduction (falling from 0.8g to 0.7g per person per day) while all other food categories remained unchanged.  However, there were some products within the categories of wet savoury pastries, dry savoury pastries, and pizza products which had reductions that were cancelled out in the aggregate by other products from these categories which increased in saturated fat content.