The Food Standards Agency (FSA) is recommending that manufacturers of things like chocolate bars and canned fizzy drinks lower their portion size in a bid to tackle Britain’s growing waistline.
The FSA is recommending bars of chocolate like Mars bars and Twix should be no more than 50g – down from 58g at the moment – and things like the standard Cadbury Dairy Milk bar, currently 48g, should only be 40g. Canned fizzy drinks should only be sold in 250ml portions, the organisation suggests.
The smaller portion size initiative will also target biscuits, cakes, pastries and buns. The plans are part of the FSA’s objective to cut saturated fat levels in food as Britons on average consume 17 per cent too much of the artery clogging constituent.
‘The food industry regularly reviews its ingredients and processes, as well as portion sizes, and the aim of this proposal is to encourage them to consider how they can play their part in improving public health and helping consumers to maintain a healthy weight,” said Gill Fine, director of consumer choice and dietary health at the FSA,
Criticisms of the development centre around the fact that manufacturer’s factories, equipment and production processes are geared around their current size parameters, which are often consistent across Europe and beyond. It will therefore be costly to implement the changes.
