Heinz has always taken nutrition seriously. Our commitment to producing great tasting food from quality ingredients, without the use of artificial colours and flavours is part of our Company's philosophy.

We recognise the health concerns over the rise in obesity and the clear consensus of expert opinion that heart disease, high blood pressure and diabetes are directly linked to excess weight.

Because of this, we remain committed to making a positive contribution through a four-point plan. 

  1. Reformulating existing Heinz varieties as well as launching new innovations that offer healthier options

  2. Providing more and clearer information about Nutrition

  3. Adopting voluntary measures on the marketing and advertising of food to children

  4. Promoting greater physical activity, sports and healthier lifestyles, especially in the workplace

Reformulating existing varieties and new innovations

You will find the majority of our foods are low in fat and sugar.  Varieties such as Heinz Beanz are also a good source of protein and rich in fibre.

Heinz has long been committed to progressive salt reduction as well as an active partnership with the Food Standards Agency and their salt awareness campaigns. More recently, Heinz signed up as a Department of Health Responsibility Deal partner on a range of health and wellbeing measures including salt reduction.

Our Heinz Beanz, Pasta and Soup recipes meet the voluntary salt targets for 2010, and many of these varieties already meet the 2012 targets as we progressively look to further reduce levels of salt. Heinz Tomato Ketchup also matches the 2010 salt target while heinz Salad Cream and HP Sauce already meet the salt targets for 2012.

All our Weight Watchers from Heinz frozen ready meals fall within the Department of Health Responsibility Deal 2010 target, with most recipes already with the 2012 target average. All are within the 2012 maximum target.

We first kicked off our salt reduction work as long ago as 1986, and since 1997 we have dropped the salt by 40% in heinz Beanz, 39% in Cream of Tomato Soup, 63% in pasta shapes, 38% in Heinz Salad Cream, 51% in HP Sauce and 29% in Heinz Tomato Ketchup. They still provide all the taste, but with considerably less salt.

We continue to offer many of our most popular varieties with recipes that provide further reductions on salt and sugar vs. our standard products but without the addition of artificial sweetners or salt substitutes. This year we introduced four varieties of our classic soup favourites, including Cream of Tomato, Cream of Chicken, Cream of Mushroom and Vegetable with reduce salt recipes.

Our work continues as we drive further salt reductions in line with changes in consumer taste.

Providing more and clearer information about Nutrition

We are committed to providing clear labelling and we were one of the first food companies to introduce full Nutrition information more than 25 years ago.

In 2004, we added information on the salt content per serving relative to the Government guideline of 6g per day, or the relevant lower target for our kid's ranges. We also provide details of Guideline Daily Amounts as part of the Nutrition Information on-pack.

Adopting voluntary measures on the marketing and advertising of food to children

Almost 10 years ago, we established worldwide voluntary guidelines covering marketing and communications.  Measures include, products that are inappropriate for children should not be advertised or promoted to children and communications media should not be directed solely to pre-school children and more.

Promoting greater physical activity, sports and healthier lifestyles, especially in the workplace

In 2005, we teamed up with the British Heart Foundation as part of a Well@Work programme supported by Sport England and the Department of Health.

Our programme aims to highlight ways of improving diet, increasing physical activity and reducing smoking as well as increasing alcohol awareness among employees at our largest European manufacturing centre located near Wigan, Lancashire.

We have also introduced a Cycle-to-Work Scheme and held pedometer challenges across the site as part of our commitment to Health & Wellness.

 

Food Standards Agency

We work in partnership with the Foods Standards Agency which is an independent Government agency set up by an Act of Parliament in 2000 to protect the public's health and consumer interests in relation to food.

You will find we produce ranges that are free from the six artificial colours of concern.

Read more

HealthandWellness_LadiesLunch