Cooking for Bureaucrats: Why the Policy of Food Reformulation is Hard to Stomach

Abstract

Under the UK government’s policy of reformulation, food products are subject to government targets for the reduction of salt, sugar, and calories. This empowers Public Health England to monitor and regulate the composition of virtually every part of the prepared food supply, including both ready-meals and supermarket biscuits and the recipes of cafes and restaurants. It represents the largest extension of state control over the British diet since rationing. The reformulation scheme is highly bureaucratic. Since 2017, there have been 220 different active salt and sugar targets. Proposals for new calorie reduction targets include a baffling range of food products, which most people would not consider unhealthy. Many of the targets are surreal, with the guideline for sugar content in nut butters being less than that naturally occurring in cashew nuts. Reformulation has been driven less by nutritional science than by the concerns of an out-of-touch state bureaucracy. Food reformulation is an irrational bureaucratic standard, which will detach the food market from the tastes, preferences, and nutritional goals of consumers. Food products will end up being designed, not primarily to please the public, but to meet the arbitrary targets set by health bureaucrats.