Food and Drink Federation (FDF) Scotland - in partnership with Food Standards Scotland (FSS) - has launched a new fund to help Scottish bakery businesses to make their products healthier.
The Healthier Bakery Fund is open to all businesses based in Scotland that produce sweet or savoury bakery goods, such as cakes, pies, pastries and bread. This includes bakery and ingredient manufacturers, local butchers and bakers, cafes and restaurants and retailers.
This fund will support projects that reduce the fat, sugar, calories or salt content in products, or that increase fibre, wholegrain, or fruit and vegetable content in recipes. These changes can often be achieved by simple actions such as swapping shortening for a lower-fat alternative or incorporating wholemeal flour into a recipe.
Successful businesses can use up to £5,000 of funding to pay for activities such as trialling recipe changes or nutritional testing.
Joanne Burns, FDF Scotland’s reformulation for health manager, said: “This funding will support food businesses across Scotland to make changes to their recipes that will allow shoppers to enjoy healthier bakery products.”
Laura Wilson, head of public health nutrition at FSS, said: “Reformulation is one of the most effective ways the food industry can help improve the everyday foods we eat.
“Our recent research found that the average calories in sweet bakery products, from out of home outlets such as coffee shops, bakeries and cafes, to be over 450, with the highest products reaching over 1,600 calories.
“The results are concerning as these products are among the top 10 food and drinks purchased when eating out or ordering in - when put in context with the 2,000 calorie recommended average intake for a female, these products can make up a big proportion of a full day’s calories.”
Ian McGhee, president of Scottish Bakers, added: “Our members have been focused for some time on improving ever further the quality and quantity of healthier products to meet the growing consumer demand for healthier options so additional financial support to continue to do this is welcome.
“However, this must go hand in hand with additional investment in consumer education and awareness on the simple steps people can take to eat more healthily, whilst still being allowed the odd sweet treat for which our Scottish bakers are so renowned.”
Successful applicants will be awarded funds from £1,000 to £5,000 and need to provide at least 50% of the total project costs.
The deadline for businesses to apply for the fund is 30 June.
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