A latest Oxford study shows that British packaged food in supermarkets is the healthiest in the world. The ranking came despite the UK’s highest obesity levels in Western Europe.
The George Institute for Global Health based in the University of Oxford launched the survey. It measures the levels of nutrients like sugar, saturated fat, and calories, covered 400,000 food and beverages from 12 countries.
Dr Elizabeth Dunford, who led the study said, “the UK’s salt reduction strategy has been a huge success. It has resulted in many packaged British foods being lower in salt than their counterparts in other countries.”
It is undeniable that packaged food is a good choice to meet the modern peace of life.
Dr Elizabeth also attributed the result to “the traffic light labelling“, a three-colour nutritional information system that gives consumers “a huge help” by providing them the “simplest” way to decide which products are the healthier.
Global supermarket food and ready meals have been an optimistically growing industry. They has attracted 90 billion in 2019 and are forecasted to reach 112 billion by 2040.
However, British packaged food is not seen as “an optimal choice for health” by Dr Bruce Neal, executive director at George Institute Australia.
“Certainly if you choose packaged foods wisely, you can eat a reasonably healthy diet. Unless you are very careful about what you choose, you are not likely to do so,” she said.
Meanwhile, Public Health England is due to setting new calorie guideline to achieve the 20% reduction ambition. It will publish a further assessment of progress in the first half of 2020.
The British government also intends to introduce legislation to restrict promotions of products high in fat, sugar or salt by location and by price in retail settings such as supermarkets and other shops.