PepsiCo is the latest food conglomerate to commit to a reduction in sugar, salt and saturated fats in its products. The obesity epidemic has resulted in increased Government pressure on companies to take responsibility of their product ingredients and encourage healthier eating.
According to the Financial Times, it follows suit after US health officials threatened to take action against them and fellow companies Con-Agra, Kraft and Campbell.
PepsiCo, who own brands such as Walkers Crisps and Quaker have pledged to reduce sodium levels by 25% by 2015 and the same amount in sugar and saturated fats by 2020. Funnily enough, the food behemoth will not commit to absolute levels of sugar, salt or fats but will, by 2012, display calorie counts and key nutrients on its packaging. Which we all know are the key drivers stopping people from buying and eating certain foods. Not.
Lets get this straight, using a benchmark of the 2006 levels, which could be more or less than 2010 levels, its going to take them between FIVE and TEN years to reduce the amount of salt, sugar and fats. Five to ten years??!! I’m appalled. It takes a shorter time to build a housing complex. Surely the amount of boffins and machinery they have in their arsenal they could do this a little bit quicker. Excuse me for being cynical, however, this looks like a case of smoke and mirrors.
They get the brownie points from governments and media exposure for announcing their reductions, thus avoiding any lawsuits, but give such a long timeline that by the time five years comes round everyone has forgotten the pledge in the first place.
But fear not, they do have our best interests at heart. PepsiCo allege they are also going to increase the whole grain, fruit, vegetable, nut, seed and low-fat dairy content in their products. So watch out for a whole raft of new ‘innovations’ including fruit and vegetable crisps (which are, believe it or not, unhealthy), sugar/honey/sweetener soaked muesli bars, again, highly calorific and wheat and soya-based products to help prop up the destructive cereal farming practice in the Americas.
The best bit is yet to come; PepsiCo will switch from using palm oil to vegetable oil and replace sugar with artificial sweeteners. I’m not advocating the use of palm oil by any stretch of the imagination however; the use of vegetable oil is just trading one nasty for another.
Vegetable oils are very sensitive to heat, a key part of food processing, which changes their molecular structure radically into what are known as trans-fats. These fats are useless to us and for our health; they increase cholesterol levels, impair cell membrane function, which means we are less able to absorb nutrients and excrete toxins, and are strongly implicated in cancer, heart disease and inflammatory conditions.
Artificial sweeteners, chemicals created to taste like sugar, are also another man-made nightmare. Aspartame, acsulfame-K and saccharine have been linked to a variety of conditions including childhood behavioural issues, cancer, hypoglycaemia, poor mental health. But of course, the artificial sugar industry is huge in the U.S. so any threat to a potential increase in business will be circumvented by any means possible.
I don’t care how it’s wrapped up, swapping natural for artificial will not solve the issue of obesity; it will create another revenue stream for an already extremely profitable company as they create new ‘improved’ brand extensions. Think about the ‘baked’ crisps that sit alongside the old favourites.
When are governments going to wise-up and realise that this isn’t going to work? They need to invest in education and skill enhancement rather than trying to get a multi-billion industry to self-regulate. Why is everything so hands-off these days? Passing the buck when it is the culmination of years of neglect in the system that has created this status quo. Surely human health is more important that company profit?
There are some great companies out there who are producing natural processed foods, but they are a minority as fresh food does not have a long shelf-life thus is more potentially to affect the profit-line if stock doesn’t sell. The key hook to processed foods is sugar, be it glucose, fructose, barley-malt syrup or any other form of natural or artificial sweetener; our brain's primary energy source is glucose, so the more we eat, the more we want. Sugar is the biggest addiction of all time. Forget the war on heroin, this is where its at.
I saw this very effective KitKat spoof from Greenpeace, protesting against Nestle’s purchase of palm oil to highlight the destruction of the orang-utan population. I think it’s time that we created something similar for the human race before we eat ourselves to death.
Image via Tiffa130's Flickr