5-a-day on composite meals would increase fruit and veg in formulations

The 5-a-Day logo was introduced in the UK in 2003, and can be used on fresh, frozen, tinned or dried fruit and vegetables to indicate how many of the recommended five daily portions of fruit and veg are contained in each recommended portion.

It cannot be used on shop bought composite foods and ready meals, however, and Innocent, manufacturer of Veg Pots meals, the government should review the 5-a-day scheme with a view to removing this barrier.

Company nutritionist Vanessa Hattersley told FoodNavigator.com that Veg Pots contain three of the five recommended portions, but they can only be labelled with the words “three portions of vegetables”​ – not the recognised 5-a-day logo.

“It’s a bit nonsensical that you can’t include these products,”​ she said.

If a person buys raw fruit and vegetables and uses them to make their own home-cooked meal, they will count those towards their five a day. But if they buy the same meal ready-made, the contribution to the five-a-day target may not be clear.

Hattersley expects that allowing use of five-a-day on composite products will encourage manufacturers to put more in – and that can also help reduce saturated fat and energy loads in products, as they bulk them out.

Orange paper ​

The recommendation for extending 5-a-day to shop bought composite foods is one of four in an Orange Paper published by Innocent following a consultation with nine industry experts and commentators on ways to encourage healthy eating and five-a-day consumption.

The other recommendations are to make healthier choices more affordable, to ensure that healthy foods are not caught up in kids’ marketing restrictions, and better use of credible nutrition professionals by the media.

The company decided to publish the Orange Paper, which is being circulated to relevant government departments and consumer media, to offer alternative approaches to the government’s Responsibility Deal white paper (now expected in final form in March), in which Pepsi and McDonalds were involved in drafting.

While the white paper is intended to demonstrate that the Conservative-led coalition and industry can work together in a fruitful way Hattersley said that Innocent does not agree with that approach to policy.

Rather, it prefers a more transparent and open approach.

The experts convened by Innocent were: Sheila Dillon, presenter of the BBC’s Food Programme; Ian Campbell, GP and obesity specialist; Gill Fine, independent public health nutritionist; Jason Halford, health psychologist at the University of Liverpool; Anne De Looy, professor of dietetics at the University of Plymouth; David Marshall, professor of marketing and consumer behaviour at the University of Edinburgh Business School, Maureen Rice, editorial director at Cedar Communications; Jane Symons, media consultant, journalist and author; and Bruce Traill, professor of food economics at the University of Reading