High Fat, Salt and Sugar foods

Diet-related disease and obesity rates are a leading cause of death in the UK. High Fat, Salt and Sugar (HFSS) foods are contributors to poor diet. To try to improve the nation’s diet, there are recommendations to reduce HFSS foods by replacing these with foods lower in saturated fats, salt and sugar to improve health. 

What is HFSS?

The HFSS score uses a calculation-based metric to identify food and drink items high in saturated fat, salt, and sugar. The calculation accounts for many components including nutrients, food or drink items and fruit, vegetable and nut content. The calculation of the nutrient scores produces an overall score which determines whether the item is a food or drink qualifies as HFSS.

Nutrients involved in the calculation

1. Kilojoules – a measure of energy
2. Saturated Fat – unhealthy fat contributing to poor health when consumed above recommendations
3. Total Sugar – form of carbohydrate which when overconsumed negatively impacts health
4. Sodium – commonly referred to as salt, this nutrient can be harmful to health when overeaten  
5. Fruit, Vegetable and Nut Total – healthy components to food intake, often under consumed and contributing positively to nutrient intake
6. Fibre – healthy nutrient, contributing to good health and commonly under consumed
7. Protein – macronutrient in the diet which contributes to growth and repair

The calculations assigns scores to each nutrient using range-based categories, summing the scores for kilojoules, saturated fat, total sugar, and sodium, and a separate sum for fruit, vegetable and nut content, fibre, and protein scores.

The Reason for HFSS score

The HFSS score was developed as a way of identifying foods high in nutrient components contributing to poor health and diet related diseases. The nutrient profiling guidelines set out by the Department of Health (1), were created for food manufacturers, retailers and advertisers to calculate HFSS score of their products. Later, these were implemented into government policy to restrict the promotion of HFSS by location and price (2). The aim being to decrease promotional offers on the HFSS products and make the healthier choices easier. The rationale has been to target the obesity epidemic and resultant negative impact on health that HFSS products can have.

The Impact of HFSS Score?

General Population

Understanding HFSS and which products are HFSS and which are not, the population will be in a better place to make healthier choices. The ability to identify foods high in fat, salt and sugar could help when making choices about nutritional intake. Currently for consumers the traffic light system can be used to help inform these choices, with green fat, salt and sugar likely to indicate a low HFSS score.  

Research and Health

Integrating HFSS into nutritional intake analysis will help both researchers and healthcare professionals. Researchers will be able to more effectively and accurately analyse nutritional intake and pull conclusions about HFSS. Healthcare professionals could use data to highlight to patients where their intake has the potential to negatively impact their health.

Implementing into everyday life

The application of HFSS scoring into everyday life is less about the score, and more about understanding the influence of specific nutrients. This enables consumers to better know the health implications of food and drink items. Implementing these principles into nutritional intake is likely to require some change in diet and potentially swapping HFSS for non-HFSS foods. Find out more about myfood24 below, to see how our platforms and databases could help to analyse HFSS.

Ideas for Swaps

Sources

1. Department of Health and Social Care (2021) Restricting promotions of products high in fat, sugar and salt by location and by price: government response to public consultation. https://www.gov.uk/government/consultations/restricting-promotions-of-food-and-drink-that-is-high-in-fat-sugar-and-salt/outcome/restricting-promotions-of-products-high-in-fat-sugar-and-salt-by-location-and-by-price-government-response-to-public-consultation 
2. Department of Health (2011). Nutrient Profiling Technical Guidance. https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/media/5a7cdac7e5274a2c9a484867/dh_123492.pdf
3. British Nutrition Foundation (2022) Foods high in fat, salt and sugar. https://www.nutrition.org.uk/media/loajgdlu/foodsh-1.pdf

Author: Lucy Clarkson, SENr Nutritionist
Editors: Jessica Eardley-Thompson, ANutr Nutritionist, Grace Williams, Head of Nutrition and Operations