The aim is that processed foodstuffs contain less energy, sugar, fats and salt, but still have sufficient nutrients such as vitamins and minerals.

The National Reduction and Innovation Strategy for Sugar, Fats and Salt in Processed Foods puts a clear focus on products targeted at children and adolescents.

Relevance for nutritional health

In Germany and around the globe, so-called non-communicable diseases such as cardiovascular diseases and diabetes mellitus type 2 are on the rise. This has an impact on the quality of life of those affected and on social and healthcare costs. An unbalanced and high-calorie diet and a lack of exercise can increase the risk of overweight and obesity, which in turn may lead to the development of non-communicable diseases.

In Germany, about 47 percent of women and 60 percent of men are overweight. Almost a fifth of adults even suffer from obesity, i.e. pathological overweight. Moreover, 15 percent of children and adolescents are overweight.

Make the healthy choice the easy choice

A balanced diet is an integral part of a health-promoting lifestyle. It comprises an adequate energy intake and nutrient supply. As part of its nutrition policy, the BMEL follows a holistic approach in order to facilitate a health-promoting lifestyle that aims at reducing the risk of diet-related diseases.

One of the main objectives of our nutrition policy is to support consumers in lowering their calorie intake while ensuring a balanced diet. One of the key measures is to improve nutritional awareness across all stages of life. With the projects of the National Action Plan entitled "IN FORM – German national initiative to promote healthy diets and physical activity", the Ministry mainly focuses on raising awareness and providing nutritional guidance.

Implementing the National Reduction and Innovation Strategy

The coalition agreement of the 19^th legislative period set out that the BMEL should devise a science-based strategy that would have a lasting effect on cutting sugar, fat and salt levels in processed foods.

The present strategy is the result of a joint process involving stakeholders from the national government, the Länder as well as associations and institutions from the areas of nutrition, health, the food industry, the artisanal food sector, consumer protection, and science. It was adopted in the Cabinet on 19/12/2018.

The adoption of the strategy was preceded by the signing of a general agreement between the BMEL and representatives of the food industry and artisanal food sector in September 2018. In the agreement, the food sector recognises that it is part of the solution to achieve a balanced energy intake of the population while improving nutrient supply.

Self-commitments and monitoring

The food sector has committed itself to achieve specific reduction targets by 2025 – with a special focus on products targeted at children and adolescents. Several associations from the food industry as well as the artisanal and retail sector have concluded process and target agreements with their member companies in order to set out specific steps, measures and objectives.

The aims are to reduce the amount of sugar in breakfast cereals for children by at least 20 percent, and in soft drinks and sweetened dairy products for children by 15 percent. Drinks containing fruit and added sugar are supposed to contain 15 percent less added sugar. In addition, the bakery trade is reducing salt peaks in bread and industrial bakeries have committed themselves to achieve an average salt content of 1.1 grams per 100 grams in packaged bakery products. Moreover, the meat industry intends to reduce salt peaks in heat-treated meat products and the frozen foods industry has agreed to limit the average salt level in frozen pizzas to no more than 1.25 grams per 100 grams. Information on salt reduction in meat products and artisanal bread shall be included in the respective education and/or training programmes.

The implementation of the strategy started at the beginning of 2019. It will be closely monitored until 2025. The Max Rubner-Institut (MRI) is in charge of conducting a product monitoring in order to determine changes in sugar, fat, salt and energy contents of processed foods over time. Baseline data was collected in 2016 and 2018. Follow-ups of selected food categories have been carried out on a yearly basis since 2019.

An advisory body supports the implementation of the National Reduction and Innovation Strategy. It is composed of representatives of the Federal Government, the Länder as well as associations and institutions from the fields of nutrition, health, the food industry and artisanal food sector, consumer protection and science.

The BMEL considers the progress seen so far to be insufficient to achieve a significant reduction in the intake of energy, sugar, fats and salt in the population. Many food categories exhibit further potential for reductions, e.g. with regard to sugar in products targeted at children or salt in meat products and unpackaged bread. As a consequence, the BMEL is going to establish science-based reduction targets. The methodology for the development of reduction targets is going to be determined in a stakeholder process involving scientific experts, led by the MRI.

Ban on the addition of sugar to herbal infusions for infants or small children

In May 2020, the BMEL enacted a regulation for a national ban on the addition of sugar and other sweetening ingredients to herbal infusions for infants or small children.

The ban includes sugar and other sweetening ingredients such as honey, fruit juice (concentrate), malt extract and other syrups produced from plant-based raw materials. Experts consider sweetened beverages to be unsuitable for infants and small children. Water and, as an alternative, unsweetened herbal or fruit-based infusions are considered to be suitable beverages for this vulnerable age group. This is also due to the fact that the sugar consumption of infants and small children is closely linked to their sugar consumption later in childhood and adolescence. High and frequent sugar consumption is related, inter alia, to the development of dental caries as well as overweight and obesity.

Research and innovation

Since 2016, the BMEL has funded innovative research related to the reduction of sugar, fats and salt with a budget of around 12 million Euro. The following nine projects were carried out at the Max Rubner-Institut (MRI) between 2016 and 2018/2019:

• Sugar reduction by increasing the sweetness of lactose in yoghurt and pudding by enzymatic hydrolysis and partial isomerisation of glucose
• Fat reduction in deep-fried bakery products
• Optimisation of fatty acid profiles of bakery products using oleogels
• Substitution of pork back fat in raw fermented sausages
• Strategies for salt reduction in meat products
• Salt reduction in selected fish products by means of salt substitutes
• Strategies for salt reduction in semi-hard cheese
• Applicability of high-pressure treatment to maintain the quality of salt-reduced vegetable juices and purees
• Research on basic principles for the production of breakfast cereals with reduced energy density enriched in dietary fibre and polyphenols

 Further research funded by the BMEL has been/is currently addressing the following topics:

• Application of oleogels derived from rapeseed oil to improve the fatty acid profile of deep-fried foods (2020-2023)
• Novel protein-based sugar substitutes with improved gustatory and processing properties (2020-2023)
• Microparticulated plant proteins as fat substitutes (2020-2023)
• Establishing a training concept for the artisanal food sector in order to provide information on the reduction of sugar, fat and salt (2021-2024)
• Development of support measures for mass catering for the reduction of salt and sugar as well as the optimisation of fat composition in meals (2020-2023)
• Establishing a system for an automated product monitoring of sugar, fats and salt in processed foods as part of the National Reduction and Innovation Strategy (2020-2023)
• Reformulation strategies for organic foods (2020-2023)
• Sensory optimisation of sodium-reduced semi-hard cheese (2021-2023)
• Development of regional lupine-based organic seasoning sauces as a salt-reduced and gluten-free alternative to soy products (2019-2022)
• Salt taste enhancing peptides derived from enzymatically produced protein hydrolysates  (2018-2021)
• Fat structuring in chocolate fillings – optimising the fatty acid profile for improved nutritional composition (2018-2021)
• Novel low-calorie sugars for food products (2018-2021)
• Development of a systematic physico-chemical understanding of sugar reduction in foods using erythritol (2018-2021)
• Innovative approach for producing fat-reduced boiled sausage products for high-temperature applications by developing and using a collagen-containing fat substitute (2018-2020)

The following projects of the Research Association of the German Food Industry (FEI) have been funded by the Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Climate Action (BMWK) via the German Federation of Industrial Research Associations (AiF) as part of the Industrial Collective Research programme (IGF):

• Reformulating fruit yoghurt by reducing total sugars and applying innovative membrane and fermentation processes (2020-2023)
• Using osmotolerant starter cultures from honey for the development of beverage ingredients made from fruit juice concentrates (2020-2023)
• Increasing the sweetness of lactose-containing by-products and their application as syrup to reduce sugar levels in milk products (2020-2023)
• Injecting gas bubbles into fat-reduced fermented dairy products to generate a creamy texture with increased release of aroma-active compounds during consumption (2019-2022)
• Reducing the tooth-damaging potential of sugar-containing fruit beverages via reformulation with anti-cariogenic polyphenols (2019-2022)
• Developing new concepts to optimise the structure and sensory qualities of fat-reduced foods by protein functionalisation and molecular sensory methods (2018-2021)
• Development and technofunctional‐sensory characterization of deep‐frying fats for artisan bakery products that are virtually free from trans-fatty acids (2013-2015)
• Enzymatic production of salt flavour enhancing peptides from milk and egg white proteins (2012-2015)
• Fat perception and regulation of satiety: approach for developing fat-reduced foods (2009- 2012)
• Minimising the use of salt in bread while maintaining the baking properties and quality of taste (2009-2011)

The Fraunhofer Institute for Process Engineering and Packaging IVV also carries out research on food reformulation. It was involved in two projects, funded by EIT Food, the innovation community on Food of the European Institute of Innovation & Technology (EIT), under Horizon 2020, the EU Framework Programme for Research and Innovation:

• Plant extracts for sugar-reduced foods (2020-2022)
• Oleogels as a healthy and sustainable substitute for saturated fat and palm oil in spreads (2019-2020)

Moreover, between 2014 and 2016, the Fraunhofer IVV worked on a project on salt reduction in sausage products funded by the Bavarian Research Foundation. The institute was also involved in the EU project TASTE, funded under the programme FP7 for the benefit of small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) between 2012 and 2014, which aimed to develop flavour ingredients from edible seaweeds to replace sodium in foods. Furthermore, the Fraunhofer IVV has collaborated with food-producing companies to develop fat-reduced plant-based ice cream as well as sausage products made from lean pork rich in protein and low in fat.

The Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF) has funded research on the reformulation of low-calorie foods using ingredients derived from Asian plants. In a wider context, the BMBF has funded four national competence clusters of nutritional research, three of which working in the field of food reformulation:

• The Competence Cluster for Nutrition and Cardiovascular Health (nutriCARD) is a collaboration project involving the universities of Halle, Jena and Leipzig. Several reformulated food prototypes as well as marketable products such as protein- and fibre-enriched meat products have been developed in collaboration with SMEs. The innovative products were also tested for their impact on cardiovascular risk factors in human intervention studies.
• The cluster enable contained an interdisciplinary research project on the development of fibre-enriched foods using both in-vitro and human intervention studies.
• The cluster NutriAct (Nutritional Intervention for Healthy Aging: Food Patterns, Behavior, and Products) aimed to provide the scientific basis for nutritional interventions and recommendations for people aged 50 to 70 and to develop healthier foods. One of its projects, carried out by The German Institute of Human Nutrition Potsdam-Rehbruecke (DIfE), dealt with the optimisation of fatty acid profiles in yoghurt by substituting milk fat by rapeseed oil.

Released 14. Mar 2024 as article