Healthy Sandwich Project
David Pickering, Trading Standards Officer at Buckinghamshire County Council explains how a great partnership between Trading Standards, Environmental Health departments and the Primary Care Trusts (PCT’s) is working to encourage local sandwich manufacturers to provide healthier options and inform the public of the benefits of requesting “no butter thanks & hold the mayo!” when ordering a sandwich.
Summary
In August 2002 the Bucks Food Partnership was formed consisting of Environmental Health, Primary Care Trust and Trading Standards officers across Bucks. As part of this project the partnership contacted all the small sandwich manufacturers and retailers in the region and advised them of the benefits, both financial and nutritional of using less spread on their sandwiches and using reduced fat mayonnaise. Posters, advice leaflets for retailers and credit card sized guidance for consumers have been distributed, a training seminar has been held and the scheme publicised to consumers at the County Show where the sometimes shocking amount of fat that can be found in the seemingly healthy option chosen by many – the good old sandwich was illustrated
The following explains in more detail how the group has successfully carried out this project.
Project Name: Healthy Sandwich Project
Project Start Date: 2002
Project Location Type: City and rural
Project Origins and original aims/Objectives and purpose of the project:
According a the National Food Survey one of the most commonly purchased take-away foods are sandwiches, many consumers thinking that this is a healthy alternative to other take-away foods such as burgers and chips. Trading Standards however discovered during a recent Sandwich Labelling Survey that in some cases sandwiches could contain as much as 50-60g of fat and the reason for these levels of fat is usually because of the addition of fatty spreads and mayonnaise.
Jane Potter, the County Public Health Nutritionist based within the PCT’s wanted to help workplaces provide healthier lunch options– but realised that within Bucks many workplaces were small to medium sized enterprises that do not have a canteen and hence staff went out to buy a snack lunch – hence attention was focused on the most commonly purchased takeaway – the sandwich! This work linked into the PCT’s Obesity Strategy, so together with Trading Standards and Environmental Health who had good knowledge of all the local sandwich manufacturers the Bucks Food Partnership was formed and worked on the project which had the following two objectives:
- To increase the number of retailers providing healthier “take-away” alternatives
- To increase the demand for healthier “take-away” alternatives
Organisations Involved:
1. Buckinghamshire Trading Standards
2. Chiltern & South Bucks Primary Care Trust
3. Chiltern District Council
4. Vale of Aylesbury Primary Care Trust
5. Environmental Health Aylesbury Vale District Council
6. Environmental Health Wycombe District Council
7. Environmental Health South Bucks District Council
Target Audience
- Small Sandwich Manufacturers/Retailers in Buckinghamshire
- Consumers
Methodology:
1. To investigate feasibility of lower fat sandwiches (September 2002)
Jane began by contacting manufacturers of sandwiches and the Sandwich Association and asking why sandwiches needed spread or high fat mayonnaise and what the disadvantages and advantages, both financial and nutritional could be of using less or no spread and using low fat or no mayonnaise. Her investigations showed there it was possible to use less spread in many sandwiches and that low fat mayonnaise could also be an option.
2. Questionnaire Survey (December 2002)
Questionnaires (attached) were sent to all small sandwich manufacturers in the Buckinghamshire region (details provided by Environmental Health) to establish current practice. Where questionnaires were not returned – the businesses were phoned. The results showed that most independent manufacturers did not offer healthier choices. The retailers offered several reasons why including problems with consistency and cost of low fat mayonnaise. Calls were made to sandwich filling suppliers and one local retailer has since negotiated a reduced fat mayonnaise at a similar price to full fat.
3. Marketing the idea (July 2003)
During routine inspections by Trading Standards and Environmental Health sandwich manufacturers were asked for their input in various methods to advertise the message that sandwiches could be healthier if consumers request for no butter and low fat mayonnaise. Using this information, posters were drawn up and credit card sized information cards were devised advising customers about fat in sandwiches, with the slogan:
4. Informing the Public (September 2003)
At Buckinghamshire County Show the Bucks Food Partnership put together a stand advising the public of the amount of fat that can be found in a sandwich. As you can see by the photos using the visual display of an ordinary sandwich and a low fat sandwich and seeing the difference in the amount of fat each contains was very striking and proved to be memorable for all. This work provided a great deal of publicity for the campaign and several articles were placed in local papers and advertised on regional news.
5. Pilot project (September 2003)
Using the information gathered from the questionnaires two sandwich manufacturers agreed to pilot a project for 6 months, during which time they did not use any margarine/spread and used low fat mayonnaise, however these facts were not made known to the customers. In both cases the businesses found that the consumers had not made any complaints regarding either the change in taste or quality of the sandwiches. In addition to this the sandwich manufacturer saved money, and without knowing it regular customers were eating up to 50g of fat less a week!
6. Training Seminars (February 2004)
The Partnership began by sending out flyers to the sandwich manufacturers to see if there was any interest in attending an evening training seminar about labelling, hygiene, and involvement in a county wide healthy sandwich campaign.
7. Review of Work (September 2004)
Unfortunately for the group it was at this point that Jane, a very dynamic character and important to the Group’s work in that her role enabled her to devote time to coordinate the project announced she would be leaving for Australia –the opportunity to carry on with this project surprisingly could not make her stay! However the Group has carried on and are now looking at establishing the project in secondary schools in the County, where sandwiches are bought in or made to order.
13 businesses attended and presentations were given by:
- Trading Standards on labelling – highlighting the results of the sandwich labelling project and providing simple guidelines on how to calculate QUID (Qualitative Indication Declarations)
- Environmental Health – on hygiene control issues and HACCP
- Primary Care Trust – viability of healthy options and the sandwich project
Funding:
Each authority represented in the group has put forward £200-£300 towards advertising and posters, with a total of approximately £1000 being spent so far.
Also each officer has put approximately 1 week of time per year on the project.
Recruitment:
This project has worked well since each person within the group has been able to offer their particular expertise to the project. Trading Standards – labelling, Environmental Health – hygiene, and Primary Care Trusts – health promotion/nutrition. Without the input from each profession the project would have been difficult to take forward. It is also important to recognise the local knowledge from both trading standards and environmental health officers – again without this the project would not have got off the ground.
Other Resources:
- Meeting rooms, - these were generally available at the various authorities offices
- Advertising material – posters, information sheets, stickers, pull up posters, credit card sized information cards.
Luxury Resources:
- Public show/event: Invaluable for getting publicity and raising awareness with consumers. The stand was also linked with 5 a day initiatives, healthy foods and taste testing
- Hall for seminar
- Jane Potter: as County Public Health Nutritionist Jane had a specific role to look at public health nutrition for 2 days per week across the County and which included a remit for workplaces. This project met both objectives thus giving her time to work on this project and support and link the work of the other professions.
Sustainability:
Despite losing a valuable member, the Partnership intends to carry on in its campaign to increase the number of sandwiches offered by sandwich manufacturers/retailers that are made without spread and use lower-fat mayonnaise. At the current level of funding and the ever-increasing amount of health promotion work that is on the nations agenda the Partnership can see no financial reason not to carry on with the project, however the loss of the post of County Nutritionist has been a hard blow to the group.
Evaluation:
In September 2004 the Partnership reviewed the work so far – taking into consideration, the amount of resources spent and the impact the project had had, and the merits of taking it further. The officers agreed to carry on with the project in order to try and recruit more sandwich manufacturers onto the scheme. So far the Partnership are aware of 8 out of 84 sandwich manufacturers offering healthier options however due to the campaigning many more may have taken the advice on board without the Partnerships knowledge.
Lessons learnt:
1. Start small – work with the smaller sandwich manufacturers. The majority of all supermarkets
already offer healthy options anyhow.
2. Ask businesses what they want – posters, training seminars, etc
3. As with all things – it takes longer than you think!
4. Well worth getting the right people together – has proved very beneficial in other areas
of work also.
5. Each profession found that this work linked well with their services’ objectives.
Future Developments:
The Partnership will be looking to review the numbers of sandwich manufacturers that have taken on board their advice, some of which may have done so without the Partnership’s knowledge. In addition to this they will soon be sending to members literature, posters and stickers for sandwich packages stating “no mayonnaise”, or “reduced fat mayonnaise” and letters will also be sent to other sandwich manufacturers to see if they are interested in joining.
If you would like further information about this project, or have been involved in similar initiatives and could offer any comments or advice please feel free to contact David.
Name: David Pickering
Position: Trading Standards Officer
Address: Buckinghamshire Trading Standards Service
5/7 Walton Street
Aylesbury
Buckinghamshire
HP20 1UP
Telephone: 01296 382017
Email address: dpickering@buckscc.gov.uk