jamie oliver pasta sauces with pasta promo

So Food Revolution Day was a huge success, and hopefully we’re a step closer to getting food education back in schools and communities so people understand what they eat, work on their cooking skills and understand the impact their diet can have on their bodies. The problem is that responsibility can’t just fall on the individual ­– food companies have to shoulder some too.

Many times throughout the year, registered nutritionists and dieticians from all over the UK come together. As a member of Nutritionists in Industry (NII) (www.nii.org.uk), I regularly meet other nutritionists and dieticians who work for food and drink manufacturers, retailers and food service providers to discuss the latest topics in nutrition. As you can imagine, it’s usually quite the party.

Last week I attended one of the regular meetings, held at the Food and Drink Federation (FDF) in London. The big area of discussion on the agenda was the Department of Health Responsibility Deal pledges. Organisations can voluntarily sign up to pledges to improve in the areas of alcohol, food, health at work and physical activity, all designed to help create an environment that helps people lead healthier lives.

Here at Jamie HQ, we’ve just signed up to two of the food pledges. Jamie’s Italian in the UK has pledged that a minimum of 50% of their ingredients will meet the strict salt targets, while the retail part of Jamie’s business, Jamie Oliver Licensing Limited, has signed up to the salt-reduction pledge, and vow that all their retail products developed also meet the salt targets. That means all Jamie’s products in supermarkets, like his sauces, pastas and spices – so you can trust that what you’re eating is within government guidelines. We hope that this will allow our customers to reduce their salt intake and help them achieve the government’s public health goal of consuming no more than 6g of salt a day. We are looking to sign up to further pledges with our other businesses in the coming months too.

So sure this is a plug to show you what we’re doing, but it’s also a call to other businesses to follow suit. Jamie takes nutrition and health extremely seriously, and has three registered nutritionists in his food team that have been accredited by the Association of Nutrition, for more information on this company take a look at their website: http://www.associationfornutrition.org/


About the author

Laura Matthews

Laura is head of nutrition at Jamie Oliver. Her passion for food comes from having cooking lessons at a local college from the age of 10, and the nutrition side from a fascination for how the right foods can fuel the body.

Laura Matthews

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Italian, Pasta