Bidfood is committed to supporting customers through the nutrition and allergen landscape by providing guidance on key issues, helping customers to make informed choices and striving to improve product ranges through pledges such as sugar and salt reduction. Some of our work has included:
Calorie labelling in the out of home sector
We have a range of resources including a guide and podcast to help customers navigate the mandatory calorie labelling legislation that was implemented in 2022.
Find out more here.
Sugar reduction
We’ve previously worked closely with Public Health England (PHE) on their sugar reduction programme, by developing a strategy to lower the quantity of sugar that is consumed from our products and working towards PHE’s sugar reduction targets.
We have reduced the sugar in a number of our own brand products, without using sweeteners or compromising quality or taste. You can see some of our successes here.
For new product development, we use our nutritional screening tool to assess levels of key nutrients, ensuring that health and nutrition is considered for new and updated ranges.
We also help customers make informed choices through tools such as our traffic light report, available through the advice centre. This report nutritionally profiles all our own brand and branded products against certain standards, such as PHE’s sugar reduction targets, the sugar tax (for soft drinks), or front of pack traffic light labelling. Available from our Advice Centre at advice_centre@bidfood.co.uk or on 0370 3663 000.
Salt reduction
At Bidfood, we recognise that achieving the public health goal of consuming no more than 6g of salt per person per day will necessitate further action across the whole industry, government, Non-Government Organisations (NGOs) and individuals.
As a result, Bidfood will strive to achieve the 2024 salt reduction targets across our own brand portfolio. All new products introduced into own brand are expected to meet, or fall below, the 2024 maximum targets for the relevant category, or below the average, where a maximum is not set. As of June 2023, 39% of own brand products met the average salt targets and 67% were below the maximum.
Read our full salt reduction policy here.
Allergens
It is estimated that 2.6 million people are living with food hypersensitivities (food allergies, food intolerances and coeliac disease) in the UK1.
At Bidfood, we take the management of allergens very seriously and work hard to support customers through developments in legislation, such as Natasha’s Law.
To find out more about what Bidfood have been doing on allergens and how we are supporting in this area, visit our Allergens page here.
Vegetarian and vegan diets
We recognise the growing trend towards a greater emphasis on plant-based foods, with more people now choosing a flexitarian, vegetarian or vegan diet.
Eating proportionally more plant-based food can help to reduce the carbon footprint of a diet, plus getting more of your 5 a day (fruits, vegetables, beans, pulses etc.) can help provide us with the range of nutrients such as fibre, vitamins and minerals that our bodies need.
Bidfood offers over 3,000 vegan suitable products, from nutritious vegetables to plant-based burgers, and we provide a range of creative menu ideas throughout our blogs and vegetarian and vegan recipe banks which show ways to create tasty and interesting dishes for all to enjoy.
Bidfood’s own-brand vegan products meet the following criteria:
- Own-brand vegan products are not made from, or with, non-vegan ingredients from end to end supply chain
- ‘May contains’ for animal derived ingredients (milk, egg, fish, crustaceans, molluscs) are permitted, however, every effort is taken to minimise cross contamination with animal derived allergens
- Vegan products are intended for vegan consumers and those looking to reduce their meat and animal derivative consumption. They are not created for consumers with food allergies and should not be seen as allergen-free
To inspire you with a range of exciting vegetarian and vegan food products, drinks and recipes, as well as lots of useful information, look no further than The Meat Free Space.
We also provide our customers with reports of products that are suitable for vegetarians and vegans through our Advice Centre at advice_centre@bidfood.co.uk or on 0370 3663 000.
Data Disclosure:
We have been looking at some of our sales data to help guide our nutrition and health strategy.
“Healthy” products:
There is currently no clear consensus on how to quantify “healthy” food, however, we have started with food and drink products that are not high in fat, saturated fat, sugar and salt, as per the Government’s front of pack nutrition labelling guidance.
We recognise this is not a perfect approach, as some foods may be excluded (which we would not necessarily discourage consumption of, such as nuts and oily fish) and we plan to continue exploring ways of defining healthier products moving forwards.
Using this methodology, we can report the following:
- Between July 2023 and June 2024, Bidfood core “healthy” product sales have grown 7% year on year (YOY)
Animal-based protein versus plant-based protein:
We used the WWF UK’s “Journey to Corporate Protein Disclosure” guide to define animal-based protein and plant-based protein.
Under this guidance, animal protein includes:
- Meat, poultry and game including beef, lamb, pork, chicken, bacon, sausages and burgers
- Fish and seafood
- Dairy including milk, cheese, yoghurt, butter and cream
- Eggs
Plant protein includes:
- Legumes, beans and pulses including lentils, chickpeas, baked beans, kidney beans, butter beans and black beans
- Meat alternatives including soy (tempeh, tofu), wheat (seitan), pea protein and mycoprotein-based products
- Dairy alternatives including plant milk, yoghurt, vegan cheese, butter and cream
- Nuts and seeds
Our reporting includes fresh, frozen and processed protein products. At this time, we were not able to include prepared and composite products, but will continue to look into this moving forwards.
Using this methodology, we can report the following:
- Of total core protein volume sales, plant-based protein is 25%
- Between July 2023 and June 2024, this split remained stable
- Bidfood have seen growth in volume sales of plant-based proteins by 17% YOY
Fruit and vegetables:
This includes fresh, frozen and tinned fruit and vegetables.
Using this methodology, we can report the following:
- Between July 2023 and June 2024, Bidfood fruit and vegetables volume sales have grown 17% YOY
- With the strongest performance being in fresh fruit and vegetables at an increase of 19% YOY
1 Food.gov; 2023
2 Food.gov; 2016
3 WWF; 2022