Analysis of greggs food from a health perspective

Greggs was founded as a family bakery business on Tyneside in the 1930’s by John Gregg. The credit crunch-busting business aims to open 600 more shops in the coming years, after selling a astonishing 130 million sausage rolls last year. Greggs already have 1,400 stores across the UK – that’s twice as many branches as Starbucks and 200 more than McDonald’s.

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While other High Street firms have suffered, the Geordie-based bakers have recorded a 3.8 per cent rise in sales over 12 months. Greggs’ Meal Deals – any bloomer sandwich, a cookie or doughnut and a drink for £2.99 – have certainly helped in hard times. But is the iconic 57p sausage roll which has led the way.

There is now even a Greggs Sausage Roll Appreciation Society on public network site like Face book. It is, according to its founders: “A group for all those people who find it difficult to walk past a Greggs without nipping in for a sausage roll when you can smell the aroma of the freshly baked sausage meat in pastry”. Greggs dates back to the late 1930s, when John Greggs started the industry, delivering yeast and eggs in the north east of England.

John Gregg was called up to the Army with the outbreak of war in 1939, but his wife Elsie kept the business going. In 1951 they opened their first shop on Gosforth High Street – and it is still there today, and from 1951 to 1984 the firm grew progressively, numbering 261 shops. Now their “Ready when you are” slogan and reasonably priced butties and pies have proved a winner in troubled economic times.

Dr David Barling, who is one of the senior lecturer in food policy at London’s City University, and he is one food expert who has criticised Greggs products. He said: “Sausage rolls wouldn’t be ideal in any nutritional diet.”In the case of industrially produced bread, a lot of the nutrients are removed from the grain and then reinserted later as added-value extra, so it is less healthy for consumer, while others have hit out at the levels of saturated fats, salt and sugar in Greggs’ products. But the firm’s marketing director, Scott Jefferson, said: Greggs sell’s 2.5million sausage rolls per week – at 57p that they’re one of life’s pleasures. As with all the food they make, sausage rolls are free from hydrogenated fat, added trans fats and artificial colours.

http://www.thesun.co.uk/sol/homepage/features/2723741/130-million-sausage-rolls-sold-in-a-year-as-Greggs-beat-credit-crunch.html

With Greggs serving over five million customers per week, it is important to know if the products they are selling is healthy or not. Recent studies remind us that the goal of eating less fat should focus on saturated fat. In the past, experts warned against saturated fat because of its direct relationship to LDL (“bad”) blood cholesterol and heart disease risk.

Cholesterol is a fat that is made by the liver from the saturated fat that we eat. Cholesterol is essential for healthy cells, but if there is too much in the blood it can lead to coronary heart disease. Now research suggests that too much saturated fat may be problematic, even if your cholesterol isn’t high, because of its possible effects on insulin functions, potentially raising the risk of coronary heart infection, obesity, diabetes, cancer, ovarian disorders and other health problems.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/12867692/

Coronary heart infection is avoidable but yet it still kills more than 70,000 people and 110,000 people have a heart attack in England every year.  Around 2 million people suffer from angina in the UK. Such statistics mean coronary heart disease is the biggest killer in the country.

http://www.dh.gov.uk/en/Healthcare/Longtermconditions/Vascular/Coronaryheartdisease/DH_120

Heart disease, obesity, diabetes plus hypertension cost $70 billion in 1995; and authorities believe that if just 1% reduction in intake of saturated fat across population will prevent more than 30,000 cases of coronary heart disease per annum and save more than a billion dollars in health care costs. Such estimates indicate that even small dietary changes can produce large benefits when their effects are multiplied over an entire population.

http://books.google.co.uk/books?hl=en&lr=&id=yD_RCqOE5goC&oi=fnd&pg=PP9&dq=Saturated+fat+and+added+sugar+in+food+industries&ots=xQdr4ZL1yL&sig=wFBh_Yq26lLlzhfhicdirQP3iuI#v=onepage&q=Saturated%20fat%20and%20added%20sugar%20in%20food%20industries&f=false

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Saturated fat is a fat that consists of triglycerides containing only saturated fatty radicals. There are several kinds of naturally occurring saturated fatty acids, which differ by the number of carbon atoms, ranging from 3 carbons (Propionic Acid) to 36 (Hexatriacontanoic acid) . Saturated fatty acids have no twofold between the carbon atoms of the fatty acid chain and are thus fully saturated with hydrogen atoms. Fat that occurs naturally in living matter contains varying proportions of saturated and unsaturated fat. Examples of foods containing high amount of saturated fat include dairy products (especially cream and cheese but also butter and ghee); animal fats such as suet, tallow, lard and fatty meat; coconut oil, cottonseed oil, palm kernel oil, chocolate, and some prepared foods. Presently people are eating far more saturated fat, on average, than is suggested, and increasing levels of obesity which signify that energy intakes presently exceed energy requirements. Together these issues increase serious health concerns, particularly in relation to cardiovascular disease, some cancers and type 2 diabetes.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saturated_fat#Examples_of_saturated_fatty_acids

Added sugars are sugars and syrups that are added to foods or beverages during processing or preparation. This does not include naturally occurring sugars such as those that occur in milk and fruits.

Foods that contain most of the added sugars in diets are: regular soft drinks, candy, cakes, cookies, pies fruit drinks, such as fruitages and fruit punch milk based desserts and products, such as ice cream, sweetened yogurt and sweetened milk grain products such as sweet rolls and cinnamon toast. Understanding ingredient- label on processed foods can help to identify added sugars.

Names for added sugars on food labels include:

Brown sugar, corn sweetener, corn syrup, dextrose, fructose, fruit juice concentrates, glucose, high-fructose corn syrup, honey, invert sugar, lactose, maltose, malt syrup, molasses, raw sugar, sucrose, sugar and syrup. Added sugar is more un healthful than the sugar in fruit such as raisins, or in root vegetables such as beets. Sugar that is bound up with the fibber in fruits and vegetables takes much longer to digest than sugars which have been extracted from their plant source – sugar cane, sugar beets, corn, fruits, trees or flowers (that includes honey and maple syrup, and sugars extracted from apples, grapes or any other fruit). When you eat, your blood sugar rises. Refined sugar in foods and drinks causes blood sugar levels to rise quickly, causing your body to increase production of insulin which acts on your brain to make you hungry, so you eat more and on your liver to cause it to make more fat.

Most people take in 20 teaspoons of extra sugar each day. A reasonable upper limit is 10 teaspoons a day. But you would get an entire days’ limit of 10 teaspoons of added sugar from a 12 ounce soft drink. A McDonald’s shake contains 12 teaspoons of added sugar and an 8-ounce container of low-fat, fruit flavoured yogurt contains 7 teaspoons of added sugar. If you are trying to lose weight, control diabetes, lower cholesterol or high blood pressure or just eat healthy, you should limit added sugars as well as flour-based products such as bakery goods and pastas.

http://www.mypyramid.gov/pyramid/discretionary_calories_sugars.html

Salt, or sodium chloride, is a chemical compound with the formula NaCl. For every gram me of salt, almost 40 per cent is sodium (Na) and over 60 per cent is chlorine (Cl). Salt has low toxicity and is completely non-flammable. If you look at table salt under a microscope, you can see that it consists of many cube-shaped crystals. In the UK, rock salt is mined in Cheshire, on Tee side and in Northern Ireland, over the years; our uses for salt have grown. At first, it simply provided a vital diet supplement and a means of food preservation.

http://www.saltsense.co.uk/aboutsalt-what01.htm

Every day 26 million adults in the UK eat too much salt. You could be eating too much without realising because about 75% of the salt we eat is already in the food we buy. The amount of salt – sodium chloride – that we eat has a direct effect on our health and blood pressure. The more salt we eat the higher our blood pressure. This is true, and is not only in people who have high blood pressure, but also in people with normal blood pressure. A high sodium salt intake also causes other health damage, such as greater retention of water in your body, which leads to swelling of the ankles and weight gain. Too much salt also worsens thinning of the bones (osteoporosis), asthma and kidney disease and is closely related to cancer of the stomach. Therefore, everyone should cut the amount of salt they eat to improve their health.

The Food Standards Agency issued salt intake targets for adults and children. The target for adults is to cut their salt intake from the current amount of 10-12 grams per day (two teaspoonfuls) to 5-6 grams a day (1 teaspoonful) or less. Salt intakes for children depend upon their age, but are considerably less than for adults. If you can reduce your salt intake more this will lower your blood pressure further, the highest amount of salt a child should have:

1 to 3 years – 2 g a day (0.8g sodium)

4 to 6 years – 3g salt a day (1.2g sodium)

7 to 10 years – 5g a day (2g sodium)

11 and over – 6g a day (2.4g sodium)

The salt – sodium chloride – that you put in your own food preparation, or add at the table is understandable, but only a fraction of our salt intake comes from salt that we add. The rest comes from salt concealed in food, i.e. processed, restaurant, canteen food, etc. Most people are completely unaware that these foods contains so much, for example, bread is the biggest source of salt in the UK diet, and makes up one-quarter of our intake. You can either cut down or cut out processed foods or read the label on processed foods and only eat those that don’t have large amounts of added salt.

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This is the most complex to do as there is a large amount of salt in processed or packaged foods and it is hard to know from the food labels how much has been added. For example, the main source of salt in diet in the United Kingdom comes from bread and several breakfast cereals.

Understanding salt label on food: Salt is sodium and chloride. At the moment most food labels only state the amount of sodium in the food. This is shown as fractions of a gram of sodium per 100 grams of food. You need to multiply the sodium concentration by 2.5 in order to convert it to salt, i.e., sodium and chloride. In other words, 1 gram of sodium = 2.5 grams of salt.

A simple guideline is avoiding foods that contain more than 0.2 grams of sodium per 100 grams of food and choose foods that contain less than 0.1 grams of sodium per 100 grams. The aim is to get your salt intake to less than 5 to 6 grams a day (or lower if possible), which is the same as 2 grams of sodium (one teaspoonful). Cutting down on salt is well worth it. The lower your salt intake, the better your health and the lower your blood pressure is likely to be and, once you are used to it, the food that you eat tastes fantastic, with real natural flavours.

http://www.blood-pressure-monitoring.org/salt-health-effect.htm

Recognizing food that contains ‘a lot’ or ‘a little’ fat, saturated fat, sugar and salt

This is ‘a lot’

Total fat per 100g of food:

20 grams

Saturated fat per 100g of food:

5 grams

Sugar per 100g of food:

10 grams

Sodium per 100g of food:

(and equivalent as salt):

0.5 grams

(1.25 grams)

Source http://www.chewonthis.org.uk/glossary.htm

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United Kingdom Food Standards Agency are unveiling variety of action strategy to help people in the UK to reduce the amount of saturated fat they eat. The diet of an average British adult contains a large amount of saturated fat, added sugar and salt. Since 2004 the Agency has been working with food manufacturer’s to reformulate foods to reduce the amount of saturated fat added sugar and salt they contain, along with communicating the health impacts of a high-salt diet directly to consumers. It is now extending that focus to saturated fat and the balance of calories that we need.

Intakes of saturated fat in UK diets are around 20% higher than official government recommendations. Eating too much saturated fat and a diet consisting of too many calories, compared to the energy we burn off through activity, can be a significant risk factor in developing defferent types of serious illnesses. Diet-related illnesses can include cardiovascular disease, diabetes, some cancers and obesity. It is estimated that cutting our intake to meet Government recommendations could help to prevent up to 3,500 deaths a year.

The programme of activity being published by the food standard agency today highlights how developing and building on positive and collaborative partnerships with industry, along with consumer awareness activity, could help reduce population intakes of saturated fat from 13.3% to below 11% of food energy.

This planned activity outlines the steps that can be taken to tackle the amount of saturated fat and added sugar to foods, while also taking account of the more complex and technical issues around reformulation. Reducing the amount of saturated fat in some foods presents a more complex challenge than removing salt.

http://www.food.gov.uk/news/pressreleases/2008/feb/satfatprog

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Obesity is more than just a few extra pounds. Obesity is the heavy accumulation of fat in your body to such a degree that it rapidly increases your risk of diseases that can damage your health and knock years off your life, such as heart disease and diabetes. The fat may be equally distributed around the body or concentrated on the stomach (apple-shaped) or the hips and thighs (pear-shaped). For medical purposes, the body mass index (BMI) is used to determine if your weight is in the healthy range. Doctors use BMI because it compares your weight against your height.

http://www.netdoctor.co.uk/health_advice/facts/obesity.htm

In England in 2007, 37 per cent of adults were overweight (BMI 25 and over) and a further 24 per cent were obese (BMI 30 and over). Overall about 6 out of 10 adults were either overweight or obese. Fourteen per cent of children were overweight and 19 per cent were obese in 2007. Overall about 3 out of 10 children were either overweight or obese.

Forty-one per cent of women and 33 per cent of men had a waist perimeter above the healthy range (above 31.5″/80cm for women and above 37″/94cm for men). The statistics below show the per cent of overweight (including obesity) by gender.

http://www.wcrf-uk.org/images/stats1.jpg

Source http://www.wcrf-uk.org/preventing_cancer/health_professionals/diet_lifestyle_weigt_stats.php

The amount of adults with a healthy body weight has decreased between 1993 and 2007 from 41 to 34 per cent in men and from 49 to 42 per cent among women. There has been a big increase in the amount of the population who are obese. It rose from 13 to 24 per cent in men and from 16 to 24 per cent in women between 1993 and 2007. Waist circumference has also increased. The per cent with a waist circumference above the healthy range rose from 20 to 33 per cent for men and from 26 to 41 per cent for women between 1993 and 2007. The amount of children who were overweight or obese in 1995 was 25 per cent, it has now increased to 30 per cent. The biggest increase is in the proportions that are obese. This rose from 11 to 17 percent for boys and from 12 to 16 per cent for girls. The Foresight information estimates that rates of obesity will rise even further to 36 per cent in men and 28 per cent in women in 2015 and 47 per cent and 36 per cent respectively by 2025.

http://www.wcrf uk.org/preventing_cancer/health_professionals/diet_lifestyle_weigt_stats.php#1

Obesity has a severe impact on the health of individuals, increasing the risk of type-2 diabetes, some cancers, and heart and liver disease.

Around 10% of all cancer deaths among non-smokers are related to obesity. The risk of Coronary Artery Disease increases 3.6 times for each unit increase in BMI. And the risk of developing type 2 diabetes is about 20 times greater for people who are very obese (BMI over 35), compared to individuals with a BMI of between 18 and 25. These diseases can ultimately curtail life expectancy. Some studies have shown that severely obese individuals are likely to die on average 11 years earlier than those with a healthy weight, although this figure can vary depending on an individual’s circumstances.

Given the impact on individual health, obese and overweight individuals also place a significant burden on the NHS. Direct costs are estimated to be £4.2 billion and organisation like Foresight,  have forecasted that this will be twofold by 2050 if continue as it is now. But there are also costs to society and the economy more broadly – for example, sickness absence reduces productivity. Foresight estimated that weight problems already cost the wider economy in the region of £16 billion, and this will rise to £50 billion per year by 2050 if the issue is still unsolved.

http://www.dh.gov.uk/en/Publichealth/Healthimprovement/Obesity/DH_078098

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Nearly everyone in the UK eat too much saturated fat – about 20% more than the recommended maximum amount. The average man should have no more than 30g saturated fat a day, while average woman should have no more than 20g saturated fat a day. Children should have less saturated fat than adults, and remember that a low-fat diet isn’t suitable for children under five. Most people don’t have time to check the amount of saturated fat they are eating every day. But it’s a good idea to take a look at how much saturated fat is in different foods. Then you’ll see that eating certain foods, especially in large quantities, can make it easy to eat more than the recommended maximum amount of saturated fat. If you know which foods are high in saturated fat and which are lower – then you can make choices each day to help reduce your intake of saturated fat.

Checking label for saturated fat:

Look out for the figure for ‘saturates’ or ‘sat fat’ on the label because this tells you how much saturated fat is in the food. High is more than 5g saturated fat per 100g, Low is 1.5g saturated fat per 100g, If the amount of saturated fat per 100g is in between these figures, then that is a medium level.

Some foods have ‘traffic light’ labels on the front of the pack. These show you if a food is high, medium or low in fat, saturated fat, sugars and salt.

Red = High

Amber = Medium

Green = Low

Try to choose foods that are low in sat fat as often as you can, or go for medium. If foods are high in sat fat, try not to have them too often, or eat them in smaller amounts. When you’re shopping, compare similar foods – there can be a big dissimilarity in how much sat fat they contain, and choose the option that is lower in sat fat.

http://www.eatwell.gov.uk/healthydiet/fss/fats/satfat/#elem490960

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You may be eating or drinking more sugar than ever because it’s added to so many foods and beverages. But this added sugar may be one of the factors in increasing level in obesity and other health problems. Does that mean you can or should avoid all sugar? Not necessarily. Sugar occurs naturally in some healthy foods. But other foods and beverages, especially sweetened soft drinks, may be high in added sugar – and low in dietary value. Added sugar does little more than add extra calories to your diet and set the stage for potential health problems. Learning more about added sugar can help individuals to eat healthy, including the types of added sugar, where it’s most usually found and how you can cut back on added sugar in your diet. When you know more about added sugar, you can be a savvy consumer -and maybe a healthier one, too.

All sugar, whether natural or processed, is a type of simple carbohydrate that your body uses for energy. Sugar occurs naturally in a number of unprocessed foods that are staple of a healthy diet fruits, vegetables, milk and some grains. Various forms of processed sugars and syrups also are added to foods and beverages, especially no diet soft drinks – these are known as added sugar.

Added sugar have no nutritional value, but it serves as many functions in food manufacturing. Added sugar: Bring out flavour, Giving a baked goods texture and colour, also Helps to preserve foods such as jams and jellies Fuels fermentation, which produces alcohol and enables bread to rise, and also Serves as a bulking agent in baked goods and ice cream, Balances the acidity of foods containing vinegar and tomatoes. In some cases, adding a small amount of sugar may be helpful. For instance, adding a small amount of sugar to healthy breakfast cereals and reduced-fat milk products can make these healthy options more appealing to children who might otherwise avoid them.

Extra sugar is not dangerous in little amount, but there is no health benefit in consuming every amount of additional sugar. plus too much added sugar, also in some cases naturally occurring sugar, can guide to such health problems as:

Tooth decay: Any Sort of sugar endorse tooth decay cause it allow bacteria to develop, and more frequently and longer you snack on foods plus beverages with both natural sugar or added sugar, the further you are likely to build up cavities, particularly if you don’t exercise a good oral hygiene.

Additional sugar only gives you poor nutrition: If your are the kind of person who stuff up on foods laden with extra sugar, you will be withhold on nutritious foods, this means you will miss out on essential nutrients, vitamins and minerals. Normal soda is good and plays a specially role. It is very easy to fill up on sugared soft drinks and skip little fat milk plus water giving you lots of additional sugar and calories but no nutritional value.

Adding extra weight, there is different kind of issues that causes overweight or obesity. But additional sugar is one of the factors that contribute to the problem. The main cause is that extra sugar contributes to the sweetness of the food and makes it taste better, and this encourages people to keep eating even when they don’t need to or are not actually hungry. Sugar is also very energy dense, which means a small amount of food or drink with added sugar, has a large amount of calories. Increased triglycerides, numbers of proofs have confirmed that eating an unnecessary amount of extra sugar can amplify triglyceride levels, boosting your risk of diabetics.

Some people might have a approval for consuming added sugar:

So how much additional sugar must you eat? Unfortunately, it’s not essentially a clear-cut. Health experts agree that the calories you get from foods and drinks with added sugar some may be optional you can have them, but this is not recommended. There are calories that can be included in your diet if sweets, fats and alcohol which is discretionary calories but if only you have calories to spare after eating nutritious meals during the day, including plenty of fruits and vegetables, whole grains, low-fat dairy products and lean proteins.

http://www.mayoclinic.com/health/added-sugar/MY00845

Currently 2.3 million people in the UK are diagnosed with diabetes and more than 500,000 also have the condition but are not aware of it. The dramatic new statistics would mean an additional 1.3 million people with the condition by 2025, the equivalent of a 46% increase, bringing the total number of people with diabetes to an estimated 4.2 million. Most of the increase will be due to rising numbers of overweight or obese people in the UK: 80% of people diagnosed with Type 2 diabetes are overweight at the time of diagnosis. The increase will have major consequences on the general health of the UK population as diabetes is a serious condition that can lead to devastating complications including heart disease, blindness, kidney disease and amputation. It will also mean higher costs for the NHS which already spends around £10,000 per minute treating diabetes and its complications. Douglas Smallwood, Chief Executive of Diabetes UK, said: “These new figures are shocking and confirm that diabetes is one of the major health challenges facing the UK today. Awareness and prevention are crucial if we want to see the number of people with Type 2 diabetes fall. We need to encourage people to reduce their risk of developing the condition by eating healthily, maintaining a healthy weight and most important an active lifestyle.

http://www.politics.co.uk/opinion-formers/press-releases/health/diabetes-uk-diabetes-explosion—more-than-4-million-in-the-uk-to-have-the-condition-by-2025-$1226501$1226186.htm

Added sugar:

You may not be positive on which foods and beverages that contain added sugar, don’t panic. First, know that between the largest culprits behind extreme amounts of added sugar are soft drinks and sugary fruit drinks.

Understanding food label on package: notice not all packages stated whether a product is sugar free or contains no additional sugar, but be conscious that some sugar free products might contain sugar substitutes, and a number of these can cause stomach or digestive distress. Checking ingredient list: Details of Ingredients are listed in descending order by weight. Therefore if you see sugar listed in the middle of the first few ingredients, the product may be high in extra sugar, and you need to remember that sugar goes by many different names, although it may not be easy to spot added sugar even in the ingredient list, and natural sugars generally is excluded in the ingredient list.

Reading nutrition label, labels are required to list an item’s overall amount of sugar per serving, though it doesn’t tell between added sugar and naturally occurring sugar. Knowing grocery store nutrition rating systems, these nutrition rating systems, such as Guiding Stars and Naval, are using symbols scores or colours to point out how a product rates in terms of calories, such as fat, sodium and fibber while sometimes sugar and other nutrients.

Different names for added sugar:

Sugar has so many different names, depending on its source and how it was prepared; it can be really difficult to identify added sugar, even if you read ingredient lists and food labels. One easy way to identify added sugar is by checking the ingredients ending in “ose” & dash; that is the chemical name for many types of sugar, such as fructose.

Common types of sugar and added sugar:

Brown sugar. Is granulated white sugar and added with molasses for flavour and colour, usually used in baking.

Cane juice and cane syrup. This is a sugar processed from sugar cane, additional processing produces white or brown solid cane sugar.

Confectioners’ sugar. Is a grounded white sugar powder, occasionally with a small amount of cornstarch, and this sugar is normally used in icings and whipped toppings.

Corn sweeteners and corn syrup. This are made from maize and processed cornstarch.

Dextrose.  This is another name for glucose.

Fructose. This is a sugar that occurs naturally in fruits, vegetables also honey.

Fruit juice concentrate.  Meaning the sugar have had liquid remove during processing, form of sugar made when water is separate from the entire juice to make it more strong.

Glucose. A simple sugar that provides your body’s main source of energy. Also called blood sugar because it circulates in your blood.

Granulated white sugar. This is a table sugar, or unadulterated crystallized sucrose, made by processing raw sugar from sugar cane or sugar beets. It’s commonly used in baking or to sweeten tea or coffee.

High fructose corn syrup. This is the most ordinary sweetener inside processed food in addition to beverages and is a mixture of fructose and glucose made through processing corn syrup.

Honey. A mix of glucose, fructose and sucrose created from nectar made by bees.

Invert sugar. Is used as a food additive to preserve freshness and prevent shrinkage, and also mix of fructose and glucose made by processing sucrose.

Lactose. Is a sugar that occurs naturally in milk.

Maltose. This is a starch and malt broken down into simple sugars and used commonly in beer, bread and baby food.

Malt syrup. Is a grain syrup made from evaporated corn mash and sprouted barley.

Molasses. This is a thick, dark syrup that’s left after sugar beets or sugar cane is processed for table sugar.

Sucrose. Is the chemical name for granulated white sugar (table sugar).

Syrup. Sugar comes in many forms of syrup, a thick, sweet liquid that can be made from the processing of sugar or from sugar cane, grains such as corn or rice, maple sap, and other sources.

White sugar. This is same as granulated white sugar (table sugar).

http://www.mayoclinic.com/health/added-sugar/MY00845/NSECTIONGROUP=2

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With Greggs being one of the biggest bakery in UK that produce deferent range of food snacks savouries. What is Greggs doing to reduce saturated fat added sugar and salt, little Children from the age of 1 to 9 years of age now eat donut, cakes sausage rolls, is Greggs doing anything to serve healthy food across the street of UK?

Greggs Progress to Date:

Greggs is passionate about the food they sell and have been working on issues relating to food and health for many years. Greggs has grown through the acquisition of regional bakeries across the UK, it has developed different local products and recipes in different parts of the country, with different range of ingredients, products and suppliers. Greggs have been changing to become a business that has just one way of doing things, which will provide customers with a consistent variety of products nationwide. This will help to make progress much more quickly in providing customers with nutritional information about products.

Work has been in progress for several years to progressively reduce the salt in bread that we produce and to reduce the fat content of our savouries, this has continue to be done without adversely affecting the taste or quality of products, which is important concern for customers. Variety of ‘Healthier Options’ and ‘Eat Well’ sandwiches have been developed, which are either lower in fat, use reduced fat mayonnaise or have no mayonnaise. In the past two years Greggs have made significant progress in the pledge to remove hydrogenated fats and oils, artificial colours and artificial flavours from products. Since then all hydrogenated fats and oils have been completely remove from our savouries, and we have made significant progress in removal of these fats and oils from bakery ingredients as well.

As a company that recognise its responsibility to enable customers to make informed choices about the food they eat, and are also committed to give customers food they love, progress in this area must be a careful balance of achieving both. Greggs have grown into a national brand from a local bakery business, with different recipes, suppliers and ingredients, and constantly changing products. In 2004 Greggs built central testing facilities to help identify nutritional information across varied products, and make this available centrally on request. We are currently simplifying our range so that we can roll out a national range across the country, allowing us to make the nutritional information for this range to be available to all customers in store and on website. Our team have been working closely with suppliers to continue obtaining healthy, good quality, tasty ingredients that meet the needs of customers.

Greggs product range and number of changes:

Greggs has made progress in salt and fat reduction for a number of products, and presently working with the food standard agency to develop ways of telling consumers about reductions made, in line with regulations. Greggs has a plan to include more healthier options products within new national rang, with new, clearer labelling informing customers as they choose what they want to buy. As Greggs develop new products, we will also continue to seek advice forum independent nutritionist to ensure that the changes we make help us improve the overall participation of products to the balanced diet of our customers.

Greggs is plummeting the level of trans fat and saturated fats, and all hydrogenated fats have been removed from savoury products, there are now reduced salt hams within the product range; the mayonnaise used in sandwiches is now the same across the country, resulting in a 10% reduction in the fat content of mayonnaise in most regions. Working together with suppliers, Greggs have been able to provide a range of salads and fruit salad pots, to balance the choice of healthier products available in stores. Fruit juice, fruit smoothes and water, have also been introduced to provide customers with a healthier choice of drinks. Currently we are using lower fat vegetable spreads in sandwiches to decrease the level of saturated fats they contain, and we have reduced the fat and salt content in cheese and onion pasties whilst providing an improvement in the quality of the product. These changes have contributed to reductions in salt, fat and calories as well as enhancing the quality, choice and value of the products. All shops offer clientele with a wide range of choices to help attain a balanced diet.

Products that have been launched since 2006 include:

Greggs Eat Well Options Contain a variety of ‘Healthier’ products range of salads and fruit salad pots to complement the choice of healthier products available, Fruit juice, fruit smoothes and water, providing a healthier choice of drinks. We have a balanced range of choices and treats, vegetarian and meat sandwiches and savouries, mayonnaise and ‘non mayonnaise’ sandwiches, and a wide choice of drinks to suit all tastes.

http://www.food.gov.uk/multimedia/pdfs/greggs.pdf

Some of our customers have told us they want to know more about what is in our food and, as a company that cares, we have a responsibility to help customers make choices about the food they eat. Now, to make it easy for customers, we have nutritional information available for most of our products. Some of the products that are non-packaged foodstuffs, information is also available on a leaflet and available in all of our shops. Gregg’s national sandwiches now carry labels stating the calorie and fat content. clients can also write, email or call their local Customer Contact line to request the nutritional details of any products .

http://www.greggs.co.uk/faqs

Greggs will also carry on supervising the nutritional data of products to ensure they Comply with UK regulations on health and nutrition. We regularly talk to customers to ensure that any changes made to products continue to meet their requirements. Will we continue to look at ways of reducing the quantity of pastry used in savoury products, without affecting the quality of the product for the customer, Trials to achieve further progress in reducing fat, and salt content of our savouries will continue, and Greggs will continue to work closely with suppliers to provide more healthy range, good quality, tasty ingredients which will meet the needs of customers. The greatest of care is taken to ensure that any changes we make to our products are to the satisfaction of our customers, so we will closely monitor consumer trials over extended periods of time before introducing any national changes. We will continue to undertake our own tests on ingredients from our suppliers, to ensure nutritional information is accurate for customers.

http://www.food.gov.uk/multimedia/pdfs/greggs.pdf

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Conclusion:

As for a healthy diet, Organisation should try to reduce the amount of saturated fats and trans fats we eat and replace them with unsaturated fats. And it’s also important to reduce the total amount of fat we eat for a healthy choice, and reduce the high intake of salt and added sugar in food and produce more healthier range of food. The removal of trans fats added sugar and high intake of salt in food will mean that fewer people would be in need of medical treatment for coronary heart disease, diabetes, obesity and other related diseases and number of deaths will reduce as well. This in turn will mean that the NHS will benefit from having to treat fewer people affected by the aforementioned diseases and could direct funding towards other areas.