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Tuesday 15th May, 2007
ASDA VOWS TO REMOVE ARTIFICIAL COLOURS & FLAVOURS FROM ALL OWN LABEL FOOD & SOFT DRINKS BY END OF 2007

Supermarket to give customers cleanest food in Britain

ASDA today becomes the first supermarket in Britain to commit to the removal of all artificial colours and flavours from every single one of its own label food and soft drinks products.    

ASDA’s ‘no nasties’ guarantee means that by the end of this year, none of the supermarket’s 9,000 own label food and soft drinks products will contain any artificial colours or flavours, hydrogenated fat or flavour enhancers, such as monosodium glutamate (MSG). 

In addition, the supermarket is also replacing Aspartame in low calorie products with Sucralose, a sweetener made from sugar that tastes like sugar.   

All ASDA’s own label product ranges will also meet or exceed the Food Standard Agency’s salt targets more than two years ahead of the 2010 deadline, following the removal of 156 tonnes of salt this year alone.   

ASDA is investing more than £30 million in re-formulating products and ensuring, as far as possible, that the taste of its products is not affected.

Work is well underway and two of the supermarket’s own brand product ranges – kids’ range Great Stuff and healthy eating range Good For You – already deliver the ‘no nasties’ guarantee and have clear messages on pack communicating this to customers.   

The removal of artificial colours (including azo dyes) such as Carmine (E120), Erythrosine (E127), Quinoline (E104) and Sulphite Ammonia Caramel (E150d), will see ASDA replace these with natural colours and fruit and vegetable extracts where necessary.  In many cases, artificial colours will simply be removed and not replaced. 

Artificial flavours will, where necessary, be replaced with flavours from natural sources.  For example, vanilla, which is sourced naturally, will replace the artificially produced Vanillin which is commonly used in chocolate products.   

Darren Blackhurst, ASDA’s food trading director, comments: “We know that our customers, particularly those who are mums and dads, are becoming more and more concerned about what’s in the food that they buy.   

“We want to make life easier and healthier for them and their families by stripping out the ‘nasties’ from all our own label food and soft drinks, so they can have complete confidence that no colours or flavours are being used that aren’t needed, and, where they are, they’re all naturally sourced.   

“In the vast majority of cases, we’ll be able to achieve this without any impact on the taste of our products.”

Notes for Editors

  • MSG – ASDA was the first UK supermarket to remove monosodium glutamate from its own brand crisps back in 1999.  Since then, MSG has been steadily removed from all other own label products.
  • Salt reduction –On 21st March 2006, the Food Standards Agency (FSA) published voluntary salt reduction targets across 85 food categories setting a deadline of 2010 for these targets to be met.  By the end of 2006, ASDA had already met the FSA target for salt reduction across more than 65 per cent of its own brand products.
  • Hydrogenated fat – ASDA, along with other food retailers, has signed up to the BRC’s commitment to remove all hydrogenated fat from its own label products by the end of 2007



 

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