Fruit could be stripped from yogurts under Labour’s “counter-intuitive” junk food crackdown, manufacturers have warned.
Food giants such as Danone are understood to be concerned that new rules on sugar and nutrition may force manufacturers to rethink recipes or even withdraw perfectly healthy products from supermarket shelves altogether.
Under the plans, health officials want to update the UK Nutrient Profiling Model (NPM) to include so-called “free sugars” that are released from fruit and vegetables when they are mashed or pureed.
It means plain yogurt would be deemed healthy, but the exact same product with added fruit could be deemed “unhealthy” – despite containing additional fibre and nutrients.
Yogurts that rely heavily on artificial sweeteners or flavourings, however, would be unaffected.
This could mean products including yogurts with added fruit would also become subject to the 9pm watershed as part of a ban on “junk food” advertising.
The extra red tape is also likely to push up food prices for shoppers, experts have said.
It follows previous reports that fresh tomatoes could be axed from Dolmio pasta sauces as a perverse side-effect of the same rule change.
The overhaul is part of the Government’s 10-Year Health Plan for England, in which it sets out its ambition “to raise the healthiest generation of children ever”.
But industry figures are now calling for the plan to be dropped, saying that where products are reformulated to remove free sugars, children and adults would instead shift to buying cakes and biscuits, or adding honey and syrup to plain yogurts.
A spokesman for Danone North Europe said the company supported efforts to improve public health but warned the proposals risked “unintended consequences for consumers”.
“Any policy must be based realistically on how food is produced and eventually chosen by consumers,” they said.
“Further progress will only improve health outcomes if targets are achievable and lead to products people will actually buy. Otherwise, it risks pushing consumers towards the very options the policy is trying to move them away from.”
It is understood the company may eventually have to look at reformulation if the current proposals go through, but no decisions have yet been made.
Yeo Valley Organic said it supported action on unhealthy foods but warned it was “counter-intuitive” for “naturally nutritious” products like organic, whole-milk yogurts with fruit to be treated in the same way as “ultra-processed junk food”.
The company said it had already cut sugar across its yogurt range and would continue to innovate, but not at the expense of “taste, quality or nutritional integrity”.
Nestlé said it was still assessing the proposals, which are still under consultation. It is understood some of its Ski yogurts may be affected.
Dr Judith Bryans of the Dairy UK trade body said the new system would “penalise categories like yogurt and milk-based drinks in particular”.
After hard work by industry to meet exacting sugar reduction targets, she said that the Department of Health and Social Care was “moving the goal posts”.
“Now there will be yet more pressure on dairy companies to reformulate and the NPM risks shaping consumer perception away from healthy foods like yogurt or milk-based drinks, towards foods that the model favours but contain empty calories and little meaningful nutrition – for example a pot of jelly or a sugar-free fizzy drink,” she said.
Currently, yogurts and milk drinks only account for 2-3pc of the free sugar intake in UK diets, according to Dairy UK.
The Provision Trade Federation also warned the policy could have wider health consequences if it reduces consumption of dairy products.
The group said evidence suggests dairy foods provide between one and two-thirds of calcium intake during growth, while 17pc of UK teenagers are already deficient.
“The Government’s policy has the strong potential to make this worse,” it said.
Rod Addy, its director general, also said that “the considerable costs of reformulation would almost inevitably get passed on to shoppers in the form of yet higher bills”.
Danone’s Activia Mango Yogurt meets the current nutrient profiling model. As such, it’s classified as “non-HFSS”, meaning not high in fat, salt or sugar. But it uses a fruit puree, which would mean it would be deemed unhealthy under Labour’s proposed rule changes, The Telegraph understands.
The Ski Smooth Strawberry and Raspberry yogurts produced by Nestlé could potentially fall foul of the proposed junk food plans too.
The food sector is already under intense strain. The Food and Drink Federation (FDF) has warned that manufacturers are being hit by rising costs and extra red tape – all while they are battling to contain disruption linked to the conflict in the Middle East for their customers.
In a recent economic briefing, the FDF said supply chains were facing “structural shocks” across energy, freight and commodities, with food inflation forecast to climb as high as 9-10pc by the end of the year.
Karen Betts, of the federation, said the proposed rules would make it harder to stem rising food prices, saying this is “simply not the way to help consumers make healthier choices”.
A Department of Health and Social Care spokesman said: “As part of the 10-Year Health Plan, this government is committed to supporting parents to raise the healthiest generation of children ever.
“The current system is based on a nutrient profiling model more than 20 years old, which does not reflect modern dietary advice, which is why we have consulted on updating it.
“Since 2015, guidance has been clear that children should eat less free sugar and more fibre. The updated model reflects this and better balances beneficial nutrients against salt, sugar and saturated fat.”
