Originally published October 12 2005
Agency brings attention to the impact of processed foods on the British population
by Mike Adams, the Health Ranger, NaturalNews Editor
The Food Standards Agency has released new figures that claim Britons are buying 31,000 more ready meals per month and last year, and public health officials say there is now an alarming trend of people whose nutrition has become dependent on convenience and processed foods.
Britons are eating more ready meals than ever, with 31,000 extra packs being bought each month compared with a year ago.
The trend is having a grave effect on the nation's health, according to the Food Standards Agency.
The majority do not look at the labelling on the package in spite of the fact that the meals are often high in saturated fat, salt and sugar.
Teenage girls, those living in poor communities and the over-fifties are the other main groups who eat too much processed food.
In the last year more than �900 million was spent on ready meals, new figures released by the FSA reveal.
In her first interview as chair of the FSA, Dame Deirdre Hutton told The Observer the country was split into 'dietary ghettos' and taking on the ready-meal culture was her primary aim.
'In that sense we need to make it as healthy as possible.
I want the "healthy option" to be the mainstream option, and I want to get to the stage where people enjoy food more and worry about it less.'
Tomorrow the FSA will launch a campaign to try to get consumers and food manufacturers to cut down salt.
Martin Paterson, deputy director-general of the Food and Drink Federation, said Hutton was 'pushing at an open door'.
He said the federation had carried out a survey of the 20 biggest brands including Heinz, Nestl� and Kellogg's, and 97 per cent of products (worth �33 billion in UK sales) would have full nutritional information by the end of 2006.
'There have been changes to the composition of food - taking out salt, fat and sugar,' he said.
'But you can't get away from the fact that, if you take sugar and fat out of a doughnut, it stops being a doughnut.
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