WASHINGTON (AP) — Some of the nation’s largest food
companies have cut calories in their products by more than 6.4 trillion,
according to a new study.
The study sponsored by the Robert Wood
Johnson Foundation found that between 2007 and 2012 the companies
reduced their products’ calories by the equivalent of around 78 calories
per person per day. The total is more than four times the amount those
companies had pledged to cut by next year.
Seventy-eight calories
would be about the same as an average cookie or a medium apple, and the
federal government estimates an average daily diet at around 2,000
calories. The study said the calories cut averaged out to 78 calories
per day for the entire U.S. population.
The 2010 pledge taken by
16 companies — including General Mills Inc., Campbell Soup Co., ConAgra
Foods Inc., Kraft Foods Inc., Kellogg Co., Coca-Cola Co., PepsiCo Inc.
and Hershey Co. — was to cut 1 trillion calories by 2012 and 1.5
trillion calories by 2015.
The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation
signed on to hold the companies accountable, and that group hired
researchers at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill to
painstakingly count the calories in almost every single packaged item in
the grocery store. To do that, the UNC researchers used the store-based
scanner data of hundreds of thousands of foods, commercial databases
and nutrition facts panels to calculate exactly how many calories the
companies were selling.
The researchers aren’t yet releasing the
entire study, but they said Thursday that the companies have exceeded
their own goals by a wide margin.
Dr. James Marks, director of the
Health Group at the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, said the group is
pleased with the results but the companies "must sustain that reduction,
as they’ve pledged to do, and other food companies should follow their
lead."
The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation is a nonpartisan
philanthropic and research organization that works to improve the
nation’s health.
Even though the companies that made the
commitment represent most of the nation’s most well-known food
companies, they sold only around a third of all packaged foods and
beverages at the beginning of the study. Missing are many off-label
brands sold under the names of retailers, and it’s unknown whether those
products have changed.
It is also unclear how the reduction in
calories translates into consumers’ diets. When the companies made the
pledge in 2010, they said one way they would try and reduce calories
would be to change portion sizes in an attempt to persuade consumers to
eat less. The companies also said that they would develop new
lower-calorie options and change existing products so they have fewer
calories.
Evidence of those efforts are visible on any grocery
store shelf. Many products now come in lower calorie versions, are baked
instead of fried, or sold in miniature as well as larger versions.
Marks
says he believes that companies’ efforts to package smaller servings —
100 calorie packs of popular snacks, for example — and smaller cans of
sugary drinks may have contributed to the reduction in calories. He says
the main contributors most likely were the public’s increasing
willingness to buy healthier foods and companies responding to those
consumers.
The companies involved are all part of an industry
coalition of food businesses called the Healthy Weight Commitment
Foundation that has organized to help reduce obesity. The foundation
pledged to reduce the calories as part of an agreement with a group of
nonprofit organizations and made the 2010 announcement as part of first
lady Michelle Obama’s Let’s Move campaign to combat childhood obesity.
Lisa Gable of the Healthy Weight Commitment Foundation says the study’s findings "exceeded our
expectations."
She
said the companies achieved the goal by coming together and also
competing to make new lower-calorie foods. Market studies have shown
that many of the healthier foods have outperformed other products, she
said.
"This is a very significant shift in the marketplace," Gable said.
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