F2F
FACE TO FACE Ursula meets: Ursula Arens Writer; Nutrition & Dietetics Ursula has a degree in dietetics, and currently works as a freelance nutrition writer. She has been a columnist on nutrition for more than 30 years.
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Ursula meets amazing people who influence nutrition policies and practices in the UK. KATE HALLIWELL Nutrition and Health Manager: Food and Drink Federation Registered Nutritionist
The Food and Drink Federation (FDF) offices used to be a dark underground labyrinth, near the tourist and theatre zone of Covent Garden in London. Kate Halliwell invited me to meet her in the shiny new offices that FDF moved into last November. Being a few yards from the most visited museum in Britain, the British Museum, means that Kate can enjoy high culture in her lunch break. But being the pivot of nutrition policy for food and drink manufacturers in the UK means that she rarely gets time to admire stones (Rosetta) or marbles (Elgin). Kate’s first qualification was an MSc in biochemistry at the University of Oxford. I quizzed her as to why she had chosen such a difficult course. “It wasn’t difficult for me; it was easy,” she replied. Perhaps doing biochemistry at Oxford is really very simple, or perhaps Kate is very clever: I suspect the latter. Her first job was within the science team of the exam awarding body Edexel. She helped plan the science content of school lessons with teachers and education advisers, and from this, curriculum schedules and publications were produced. She then took two years out to travel, exploring South America, Australia and many South East Asian countries. She came back refreshed and inspired to develop her career in health rather than education. Edexel were happy to take her back as a project manager and she completed a diploma in Nutritional
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Medicine at the University of Surrey in the evenings and at weekends. Her next job was with the Food Standards Agency (FSA). Front-of-Pack traffic light labelling (my pet hate) had just become the agreed policy of UK government. It was a voluntary scheme, but there was much pressure for the uniform adherence of this additional nutrition information scheme by UK food producers and manufacturers. Kate was there to encourage and support the implementation of traffic light labelling by as many packaged food providers as possible: cheering or chiding, or just generally being very helpful to those who were wavering about the decision. During this time, Kate managed an arrangement with her employer, then the FSA, to fund her to complete her Masters in Nutritional Medicine at the University of Surrey. After two years with traffic lights, Kate was promoted to a newly formed ‘catering’ team which initially focused on developing a nutrition labelling approach in out-of-home (OOH) settings. Detailed consumer focus work and business recruitment followed to enable a pilot of calorie labelling at point of choice - menus and menu boards. There was, and still is, a huge range of calories (and other nutrients) in products which can look similar. A lack of labelling makes it very hard for consumers to know what they’re choosing. Kate was there to support energy labelling (or more, if possible) in pilot companies. “Muffins, for example,
could look similar but vary by 500 calories in terms of energy content,” said Kate. “Information about energy content could encourage people to make different choices and producers to reformulate.” When I asked whether this was theory or evidenced, she said, “Yes/no…sometimes. Consumers make different choices when energy information is provided, but occasionally, results contradict expectations and some studies hint that such information leads to mostenergy-for-money choices, depending on the food and the consumer group.” In addition, Kate spent lots of time talking to owners of cafes and takeaways and small restaurants to develop general healthier catering guidance that they could relate to. Initially, much of her work was with the National Federation of Fish Fryers, advising on chip sizing, frying oil specifications and ways to reduce salt content and portion sizing; perhaps her friends and colleagues did note the slight waft of fish-and-chips whenever Kate entered the room. In 2011, she became nutrition manager for the trade association, the Food and Drink Federation, which has a membership of over 300 food and drink businesses. She was there to deliver sciencebased information to member companies and to then support the development of cross-industry positions promoting consumer health. The by-stealth salt reduction strategies were being agreed and implemented by many food companies in the UK and Kate was there to understand technical issues and support clarity and uniformity of implementation attempts. One issue of debate was whether salt targets should be different, i.e. lower for new-launch products compared to long-established brands. For lots of reasons, it was decided that a split-target was not a good idea, and that all foods in a sector should be monitored by the same figure. Current priorities are sugar reductions: “Although this is more difficult than salt reductions. Sugar adds to bulk and colour and texture to foods,” said Kate. The UK food industry supports government and health professional attempts to
tackle population obesity, but is anxious about the many confusing and mixed messages in media, and supports consistency of communications being about energy balance and calorie reduction. There are two committees on FDF that keep Kate, now promoted to nutrition and health manager, busy. The nutrition committee monitors technical details of legislation and recommendations in the formulation of food products. The diet and health committee considers wider policy implications, as well as considering those that affect consumer understanding and choices around foods. Both committees require keeping up to date with science and legislation and policies and the opinions of government and healthcare professionals and consumer groups, as well as critical lobbying groups pushing for greater and faster changes in product reformulation and marketing. Kate says that, “such groups keep us on our toes and that is a good thing. We should be open to the thoughts and critiques of those who support public health.” Some healthcare professionals are critical that someone like Kate spends so much time working with food companies that make less healthy foods. But Kate feels strongly that she is able to support many small improvements to products made by the UK food industry. “I ask them,” she says, “whether they would prefer that nutritionists or dietitians had no contact at all with food producers?” Because Kate is the middle link between government and scientific experts, and the technical staff across the wide range of UK food industries, she is the ideal person to pass on messages and ideas between these groups. She is the science-to-producer translator. And she can clearly communicate food sector issues to government and health lobby activists. “My job is really enjoyable and exciting. And the best thing is that I am always talking to very interesting and intelligent people.” For Kate, intelligence was not just about strings of qualifications; rather it was about being pragmatic about constant improvements that could and should be made to national diets.
If you would like to suggest a F2F date
(someone who is a ‘shaker and mover’ in UK nutrition) for Ursula, please contact:
info@networkhealthgroup.co.uk www.NHDmag.com November 2017 - Issue 129
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