Healthy Food Partnership Reformulation Program: Wave 2, two-year progress

• Of 249 participating products in scope for sodium reformulation, 16% recorded a decrease in sodium content between June 2021 and June 2023. 
• The consumption impact from the sodium reformulation was estimated to be a reduction of less than 1 mg per capita per day, equivalent to 3.3 tonnes of sodium over the year to June 2023.
• Of the 199 participating products in scope for sugar reformulation, 32% recorded a decrease in their sugar content between June 2021 and June 2023. 
• The reduction in sugar from the participating products was less than 0.1 gram per capita per day. However, over the year to June 2023, this equates to the removal of 261 tonnes of sugar from the food supply. 

In 2015, the Australian Government established the Healthy Food Partnership (HFP) as a voluntary collaboration between the food industry, the public health sector and government. Its goal is to enhance health and reduce overweight and obesity by improving the food environment and influencing Australians' ability to make healthier food choices. A key initiative of the HFP is the Partnership Reformulation Program (PRP) which aims to reduce the Australian population’s consumption of sodium, saturated fat and sugar from processed food products.

The reformulation phase of the PRP is being conducted from 2020 to 2026 with eligible food categories being divided into waves. Each wave specifies targets for the maximum levels of sodium, saturated fat and total sugars content within specified food categories that Australian companies can voluntarily work towards over a four- or five- year period. 

The four-year implementation period for Wave 1 of the PRP commenced on 1 July 2020 following the introduction of voluntary reformulation targets for:

• Sodium (across 27 food categories)
• Saturated fat (across 5 food categories)

Information on progress towards the reformulation targets at the two-year mark of Wave 1 (from June 2020 to June 2022) can be found at the Healthy Food Partnership Reformulation Program: Two-year progress– Sodium and saturated fat consumption, Wave 1, June 2020 and June 2022.

The implementation period for Wave 2 of the PRP commenced on 1 July 2021 following the introduction of voluntary reformulation targets for:

• Sodium (across 5 food categories)
• Sugar (across 9 food categories) 

This article provides an update on the progress towards the Wave 2 reformulation targets at the two-year mark (from June 2021 to June 2023) based on reporting by participating manufacturers. The analysis includes the number of participating products that met sodium or sugar targets at each period, the change in average sodium or sugar content (per 100g) and the reformulation impact at the population level. For details on the methods and assumptions used to measure population impact see the Methodology section.

Sodium data was provided for 249 products across 5 categories of processed foods. The majority of these products (180) were ready meals, with the remaining products consisting of breakfast cereals and popcorn.

When the data from participating manufacturers was integrated with 2022-23 scanner data sales, it was estimated that the participating products contributed a total of 14.5 mg sodium per capita per day at baseline (June 2021), equivalent to 0.5% of total dietary sodium consumption at baseline (3,093 mg per capita per day).  

If 100% of eligible products within the 5 selected food categories participated in this wave of sodium reformulation, these categories would account for 2.4% of total dietary sodium consumption. 

1. Total daily per capita sodium consumption in 2022-23 based on the sodium available from participating products (using the June 2021 formulation) + the non-participating products (using AUSNUT values). 

The proportion of total sodium consumption within each category that could be accounted for by participating products varied from 5.4% (plain puffed, flaked or extruded cereals) to 27.1% (ready meals). 

Almost one in six (15.7%) participating products in Wave 2 PRP recorded a decrease in sodium content between June 2021 and June 2023. Breakfast cereals had the greatest proportion recording a reduction with around 21% (12 products) having less sodium in 2023 than in 2021.  

The overall proportion of participating products exceeding their respective sodium targets fell from 29% in June 2021 to 27% in June 2023. 

By individual food category, sodium targets were exceeded by:

• 42% of popcorn products in 2023 (up from 33% in 2021)
• 31% of ready meals in 2023 (down from 35% in 2021)
• 8.8% of breakfast cereals in 2023 (down from 10.5% in 2021).

On average, sodium content decreased by 4.6 mg per 100 grams (or 2.0%) across all participating products.

The greatest relative reduction in average sodium was seen for plain puffed, flaked or extruded cereals (-9.1%). The average sodium content of plain cereal biscuits and all other ready-to-eat cereals remained relatively unchanged, while popcorn products saw a 6.7% increase in sodium content over the two-year period.

The average sodium content of popcorn products exceeded the target in both June 2021 and June 2023. All other categories had average sodium content values below their respective targets for these periods.

Taking account of the sales volumes of products to estimate the apparent consumption impact of reformulation from industry-supplied data shows that on average, consumption of sodium for the Australian population fell by 0.3 mg per capita per day between June 2021 and June 2023. This is equivalent to a 0.01% decrease in the estimated total consumption of 3,093 mg of sodium per capita per day in June 2021.

Most of the decrease in population sodium consumption came from ready meals, which decreased by 0.3 mg per capita per day.

Although 0.3 mg of sodium per person per day is a relatively modest reduction of the total dietary sodium available for consumption, over a year that amounts to 3.3 tonnes of sodium (or just over 8 tonnes of table salt) being removed from the food supply.

Sugar data was provided for 199 products across 9 categories of processed foods and beverages. The leading categories by number of products provided were:

• Ready-to-eat cereals without dried fruit (57)
• Fruit drinks (34)
• Muesli and snack bars (29)
• Soft drinks and energy drinks (27).

When manufacturers’ information was integrated with the 2022-23 scanner data sales, it was estimated that participating products contributed just over 2 grams of sugar per capita per day in each period, representing around 2% of total dietary sugar consumption (109 g). However, the majority (82%) of total dietary sugar consumption comes from products that were beyond the scope of the 9 food categories selected for sugar reformulation in the Wave 2 PRP. 

1. Total daily per capita sugar consumption in 2022-23 based on the sugar available from participating products (using the June 2021 formulation) + the non-participating products (using AUSNUT values). 

Participating products accounted for 11.2% of sugar from all products within in-scope categories. By food category, the greatest coverage levels of sugar from the participating products were:

• Flavoured dairy milk alternatives (73%)
• Fruit drinks (30%)
• Ready-to-eat cereals without dried fruit (17.5%).

Wave 2 of the Product Reformulation Program has two sugar targets:

• A maximum sugar content (g per 100g/100mL), applicable to all in-scope food categories except for soft drinks and energy drinks, and 
• A relative reduction (%) in sugar content for products that exceed a specified threshold sugar content, applicable to ready-to-eat cereals, muesli bars and soft drinks.

Almost one-third (32%) of participating products recorded a decrease in sugar content between June 2021 and June 2023. This resulted in a drop in the proportion of applicable products exceeding their relevant maximum sugar content target, from 30% of all participating products in June 2021 to 22% in June 2023.

The food categories with the lowest proportion of products exceeding their relevant maximum sugar content target in June 2023 were:

• 18% of breakfast cereals (down from 23%)
• 27% of fruit drinks (down from 50%)
• 35% of muesli snacks and bars (no change).

The average sugar content of all participating products decreased by 3.8% (from 13.7 to 13.2 grams per 100 g) between June 2021 and June 2023.  This decrease was driven by:

• Sweetened yoghurts, with a 1.1 grams (or 10.3%) average drop in sugar from 10.7 to to 9.6 g per 100 g
• Ready-to-eat cereals without dried fruit, decreasing by an average 1.1 grams (or 7.7%) to 13.1 g per 100 g
• Muesli and snack bars, which decreased by 0.3 grams (or 1.4%) on average to 23.7 g per 100 g. 

The relative reduction sugar target for Wave 2 applies to products in 4 food categories when they exceed a category-specific threshold sugar content level. The relative reduction targets and threshold levels are:

• A relative reduction of 20% for ready-to-eat breakfast cereals with dried fruit, when the sugar content of a product exceeds 28g per 100g
• A relative reduction of 20% for ready-to-eat breakfast cereals without dried fruit, when the sugar content of a product exceeds 25g per 100g
• A relative reduction of 15% for muesli and snack bars, when the sugar content of a product exceeds 28.5g per 100g
• A relative reduction of 10% for soft drinks and energy drinks, when the sugar content of a product exceeds 10g per 100g

In June 2021, these relevant threshold sugar content levels were exceeded by 16% of the participating products (where applicable) across the 4 in-scope food categories. By category:

• 41% of soft drinks and energy drinks exceeded their threshold sugar content (10g per 100g)
• 14% of muesli bars and snack bars exceeded their threshold (28.5 g per 100g)
• 11% of ready-to-eat breakfast cereals without dried fruit exceeded their threshold (25 g per 100g)
• No ready-to-eat breakfast cereals with dried fruit exceeded their threshold (28 g per 100g)

The majority of products (81%) that exceeded their threshold levels in June 2021 had not met their relative reduction targets as of June 2023.

To measure the impact of reformulation on consumption, this analysis uses 2022-23 sales to compare the total sugar available for the participating products at baseline (June 2021) with the June 2023 formulations. 

The reformulation of participating products resulted in a 1.3% decrease in total sugars between June 2021 and June 2023. In per capita terms this amounted to a decrease of less than 0.1 gram per day from the estimated total sugar consumption of 109 grams per capita, per day. 

Although the daily per capita reduction appears negligible, over a year (2022-23) the sugar reformulation resulted in a total of 261 fewer tonnes of sugar being consumed compared to the baseline levels.