Ajouter aux favoris   Ajouter cette page à mon bookmark --- SOCIAL BOOKMARKING --- Digg Furl del.icio.us Netscape

Healthy eating has been high on the agendas of the Government, the media, consumers and the food industry for many years, but interest has undoubtedly accelerated since the previous edition of Healthy Eating was published in July 2004. A number of initiatives have been set in place following the May 2004 publication of the Third Report on Obesity by the Health Select Committee, which estimated that the annual cost to the country of obesity-related conditions was £3.7bn and which criticised a number of government departments — including Transport, Health, and Culture, Media & Sport — for failing to work together to tackle the problem. Areas that are currently under the spotlight include: food labelling, school meals and the advertising of food to children.

Once a niche sector with availability limited mainly to health food stores and specialist outlets, the market for organic food increased very rapidly during the second half of the 1990s. As the market has matured, growth has become steady rather than spectacular, but it is still very much a thriving sector.

Although functional foods were initially slow to gain acceptance in the UK, consumers have gradually become more receptive to them. The development of products with functional benefits are gradually extending to sectors beyond the core product areas of breakfast cereals, margarines and yoghurts, and the market has increased rapidly since 2000/2001.

The market for low-fat and low-sugar variants of mainstream foods began to take off during the mid-1980s. Originally marketed mainly on a slimming platform, the focus has increasingly turned to the overall health benefits of reducing the consumption of fat and sugar, both of which were singled out by the 2004 Health Select Committee as being potentially undesirable.

Healthy eating has been high on the agendas of the Government, the media, consumers and the food industry for many years, but interest has undoubtedly accelerated since the previous edition of Healthy Eating was published in July 2004. A number of initiatives have been set in place following the May 2004 publication of the Third Report on Obesity by the Health Select Committee, which estimated that the annual cost to the country of obesity-related conditions was £3.7bn and which criticised a number of government departments — including Transport, Health, and Culture, Media & Sport — for failing to work together to tackle the problem. Areas that are currently under the spotlight include: food labelling, school meals and the advertising of food to children.

Once a niche sector with availability limited mainly to health food stores and specialist outlets, the market for organic food increased very rapidly during the second half of the 1990s. As the market has matured, growth has become steady rather than spectacular, but it is still very much a thriving sector.

Although functional foods were initially slow to gain acceptance in the UK, consumers have gradually become more receptive to them. The development of products with functional benefits are gradually extending to sectors beyond the core product areas of breakfast cereals, margarines and yoghurts, and the market has increased rapidly since 2000/2001.

The market for low-fat and low-sugar variants of mainstream foods began to take off during the mid-1980s. Originally marketed mainly on a slimming platform, the focus has increasingly turned to the overall health benefits of reducing the consumption of fat and sugar, both of which were singled out by the 2004 Health Select Committee as being potentially undesirable.