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Our Products

The product pillar of our Enriching Life Plan is dedicated to helping consumers lead healthier and more sustainable lifestyles by creating foods that are rich in nutrients, kinder to the environment and free of unnecessary or problematic packaging. 
 

What’s at stake?

The Health Survey for England in 2021 estimated that nearly 26% of adults are obese with a further 38% overweight and research from the British Nutrition Foundation shows that only 1% of the population follows a healthy, balanced diet. The EAT-Lancet Commission advocates for a shift towards healthier and more plant-based foods to address the needs of a growing population in a world of finite resources. 

In 2020, 12 million tonnes of packaging was placed on the market in the UK. Packaging plays a key role in the food industry and prevents food waste by delivering products to consumers safely. However, if poorly designed, excessively used, or irresponsibly disposed of, it can lead to a range of environmental and social issues. 
 

Our ambitions, targets and progress



 

Our contribution

Keeping our consumers at the heart of everything we do, we strive to democratise nutritious, affordable food and nudge consumers towards healthier and more sustainable diets. 

  • During the financial year 2022-23, we have launched or reformulated 207 products which support high nutritional standards and 172 products which offer an additional health and/or nutrition benefit.  
  • All of our top selling stock and gravy products have a 25% reduced salt option and a wide range of them also now offer a plant-based alternative. 
  • While we have increased our range of cooking sauces offering one of your 5 a day, we have also enhanced fibre levels where possible.  
  • In traditional HFSS food categories (classified as high in fat, sugar or salt), we successfully developed and launched non-HFSS alternatives, for example, Sharwood’s poppadoms and prawn crackers.  
  • We launched six new foodservice products with increased vegetables in our Sharwood’s and Homepride brands supporting schools in preparing healthier and more sustainable meals. These products are fortified with vitamins C and D, while also providing a source of or high in fibre.  
  • We offer vegan-approved non-HFSS Indian Tikka and Korma variants.  
  • All single servings of cake and pudding products now meet the Government calorie cap, as set out in their sugar reduction programme’s guidelines.  
 

We believe it is important to collaborate with others to have a broader impact. In order to support an increase of fibre in the UK diet we have launched 30 new products with fibre content in line with criteria set out in the UK nutrition claim register, contributing to the Food and Drink Federation’s ‘Action on Fibre’ initiative. We have also collaborated with retailers and others in the industry as part of the Consumer Goods Forum to share our experiences of developing and promoting healthier products.  

Harnessing the power of our trusted brands, we are supporting our consumers who choose to transition towards more plant-based diets, by setting ourselves a target for each core range to offer a meat-free version. We have also recently launched exciting new options under our Plantastic brand. We are continually working towards removing artificial colours and flavours from our brands and we do not add non-naturally occurring trans fats to our products. We also have a policy that we won’t use Genetically Modified Organisms in our products.  

Packaging plays a vital role in delivering products safely to consumers, but we also recognise the need to reduce its social and environmental impact. We are a founding member of the UK Plastics Pact and have a place on the steering group for the programme to help drive action across the industry. Supporting a circular economy, currently 96% of all our packaging and 82% of our plastics packaging is recyclable. We are also working to include more recycled content to reduce the need for virgin materials. All of our packaging will continue to carry OPRL (On Pack Recycling Labels) to help our consumers understand where they can recycle it and we will engage with industry and Government to help ensure the planned reforms to household recycling systems in the UK lead to increased recycling rates and reduced littering. 

 

Case Studies

 

Transparent Nutrition Labelling

 

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We continue to champion transparent nutrition labelling so that consumers can make informed choices about the products they buy. As one of the first food manufacturers to adopt the voluntary front-of-pack traffic light labelling, we went on to support the Institute of Grocery Distribution (IGD) in developing best practice guidance to encourage consistency across industry and better consumer understanding of the nutrition information provided in these labels. 91.8% of our UK portfolio carries all five key pieces of nutrition data – energy, fat, saturates, sugars, salt – on the front of pack (the remaining 8.2% only carry the energy information due to the small size of the packaging). This labelling helps our consumers to make informed choices.

We continue to work with other stakeholders on collaborative action to drive healthier diets and partner with our customers to promote and highlight our healthier alternatives to nudge our consumers towards those options and encourage behaviour change. We have joined the Consumer Goods Forum’s Collaboration for Healthier Lives UK and look forward to playing a meaningful role within this forum which brings together manufacturers and retailers alongside key local stakeholders (including public health authorities, academics, local actors and government figures) to drive change and positively impact consumer health. Collectively, the forum aims to develop a series of structural and behavioural interventions – both in-store and through digital channels – to help our consumers and employees understand, find and choose healthier options.

A healthier version of your favourite takeaway

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54% of UK consumers surveyed for our Kitchen Cooking Index have tried their hand at a ‘fakeaway’, recreating the eating out dining experience from their own kitchens.

With our Sharwood’s curry sauces, our consumers can enjoy the taste of Indian flavours with a healthier recipe than those from restaurants. Indeed, our research has found that a home-made curry using our reduced fat Sharwood’s curry sauce has a significantly better nutritional profile than an equivalent takeaway curry.

The saturated fat content in a takeaway option is on average three times higher than our Sharwood’s better-for-you 30% reduced fat Korma sauce, and it contains on average 60% more calories.

We have added the 30% reduced fat butter chicken cooking sauce to our portfolio of better-for-you Sharwood’s sauces – helping our consumers in search of flavour, variety and healthier options!

Banging the drum of the circular economy

 

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We have reduced the height of Bisto drums by 8mm, which will save 40 tonnes of paper annually. The reduction required significant changes to our manufacturing line in Worksop, including replacing the sensors and making alterations to the drum’s sealing and capping machines, all while ensuring the serve size wasn’t reduced. Consumers have actually received an additional 20g of gravy granules (190g) – approximately six more portions per tub. The height difference also allows for more products to be packed in one lorry, ultimately reducing road miles. In Knighton, we invested in a new line which enabled us to make our Marvel, Smash and Birds drums from a single material to making it easier for consumers to recycle them.


 

Mr Kipling Deliciously Good cakes and pies

 

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Four years ago, we set ourselves the challenge of creating a cake that gave our consumers a healthier option, without having to compromise on taste. Our new Mr Kipling Deliciously Good cakes and fruit pies were launched in spring 2022, an innovation which delivers on our target of more than doubling sales of products meeting high nutritional standards. Mr Kipling Deliciously Good is our first range of cakes and fruit pies, which not only score less than 4 on the Nutrient Profiling Model (NPM), but importantly, deliver great flavours for consumers.

Building on the successful Mr Kipling 30% less sugar Angel, Chocolate and Lemon slices, our bakeries and in-house development chefs built on the expertise and experience garnered from producing such an iconic brand over the last 50 years, to make the impossible possible - a great-tasting cake that contains significantly less sugar, saturated fats and salt, is classified as non-HFSS (i.e. not containing high levels of fat, salt and sugar) and contains added real fruits.

This culinary breakthrough is a fantastic example of our expert development chefs continuing to push boundaries to innovate and create even healthier recipes of consumers’ favourites.

Supporting plant-based diets

 

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Families and individuals eating meat-free main meals have increased by 33% in the last five years and with this trend set to continue we want to support consumers who wish to consume more plant-based products in their diets. We have therefore launched and reformulated 60 plant-based products through 2022-23. Exciting new products from our Plantastic brand include Plantastic Protein Boost pots and Creamy Pasta sauces, which are also a source of protein and fibre, as well as being one of your 5 a day. We are also helping shoppers create nutritious meat-free versions of popular meals with Paxo meat-free Meatball and Burger mixes and meat-free gravy recipes from Bisto