Nutrition - Policy
So, what exactly is our nutritional policy?
It’s a policy defined by our industry leadership in nutritious, frozen food. So it’s a given that all our products are free from hydrogenated vegetable oil and are non GM, while our meat products contain no added phosphates, and core lines all feature 100% prime fish fillet or 100% chicken breast.
But underlying this all, is our firm belief in providing essential information on the nutritional content of all our products to caterers everywhere.
And to fully support this belief, we have certain commitments in place, as follows:
(a) As Food Standards Agency (FSA) nutrition targets are reviewed and revised, we will ensure that our products continue to meet these where technically possible.
(b) We keep watch of emerging trends in nutrition best practice including the published opinions of European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) and other scientific bodies worldwide.
(c) To keep our products and nutrition standards under constant review
(d) For all of our Captain (children’s) products to contain less than 20% of the Guideline Daily Allowance (GDA) for salt, fat and saturated fat for the same age group (5-10 year olds)
(e) To ensure a consistent and responsible approach to portion guidance
(f) To encourage consumers to eat five fruit and vegetables a day
Our nutritional history
Our dedication to nutritional excellence isn’t just another marketing ploy. Birds Eye have been committed to achieving the highest nutritional standards long before Jamie Oliver’s school campaign, and the implementation of the School Foods Trust.
Here’s a snapshot of what we’ve been doing over the years:
1996
• Set our Nutrition Policy Criteria
• Initiated an Annual Audit of all our products, recommending salt reduction across the board
2002
• 90% of our products met the standards recommended in our Nutrition Policy Criteria
• Switched to using sunflower oil, to reduce saturated fat levels in key products
2004
• An Independent Audit endorses our Birds Eye nutritional standards, and the standards we applied to our Captains Birds Eye range of products for children
2005
• Introduced salt equivalent labelling by age group on our Captains Birds Eye children’s products
• Launched our Healthcare Professional (HCP) Nutrition Toolkit, with support from the British Dietician’s Association (BDA)
2006
• A second Independent Audit endorses our Birds Eye nutritional standards and Captain Birds Eye standards
• Implemented GDA icons front of pack on all our retail products
• Launched Birds Eye Nutrition Education Award for BDA members
2007
• Initiated the implementation of new EU Nutrition & Health Claims legislation
• Launched Omega 3 Fish Fingers
• Initiated a unique case study with Kells Lane Primary School, increasing the fish consumption of children and their families
2008 & beyond
• On all our Foodservice products, we’ll provide nutritional information per 100g servings, in accordance with legislation on the EU Nutrition Labelling Directive
• We’ll provide nutritional information per 100g in accordance with SFT nutrient-based standards
• GDA figures for energy, sugar, fat, saturates and salt will be provided per serving to help foodservice operators educate consumers as to how much energy, sugar, fat, saturated fat and salt they’re eating, and provide benchmark figures to assess their intake against
• We’re currently developing a non pre-fry product range, to deliver a lower fat and saturated fat proposition, whilst maintaining product versatility. Watch this space.
Our major achievements
• In 2002 we made a major change to the saturated fat content in our food when we switched the oil we used in our products to one with 75 per cent less saturated fat
• Our Fish and Chicken recipes are less than one quarter of the adult GDA for salt and less than one third of the adult GDA for fat and saturated fat
• By 2005 we had already reduced salt by 19%, fat by 5% and saturated fat by 50% on average across our entire children’s range of consumer products
• All of our products are preserved naturally by freezing and do not contain any artificial colours or flavours
• Our launch of Omega 3 Fish Fingers in the UK, using Pollock, as an alternative to Cod
• Further improvement of our fish fingers leads to the launch of an Omega 3 enriched Fish Finger - with extra Natural Omega 3
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