UK Health Security Agency News and Media

02 Jan 2018

Half the sugar children consume comes from unhealthy snacks and sugary drinks

  • New Change4Life campaign encourages parents to “Look for 100 calorie snacks, two a day max” to cut children’s sugar intake.

Public Health England (PHE) is helping parents take control of their children’s snacking by launching the first Change4Life campaign promoting healthier snacks.

This is because half of children’s sugar intake, currently around 7 sugar cubes a day[1], comes from unhealthy snacks and sugary drinks[i], leading to obesity and dental decay.

Each year children are consuming almost 400 biscuits; more than 120 cakes, buns and pastries; around 100 portions of sweets; nearly 70 of both chocolate bars and ice creams; washed down with over 150 juice drink pouches and cans of fizzy drink.1

On average, children are consuming at least 3 unhealthy snacks and sugary drinks a day, with around a third consuming 4 or more.1 The overall result is that children consume three times more sugar than is recommended. [ii]

The new Change4Life campaign encourages parents to “Look for 100 calorie snacks, two a day max” to help them purchase healthier snacks than the ones they are currently.

Selected supermarkets are supporting the campaign. As part of their wider work promoting good health, Tesco will help parents -  instore and online - choose affordable, healthier snacks that are 100 calories or less. Co-op will also provide tasty and healthy snacking products, making it easier for customers to make healthier choices on the go.

Parents can also get money-off vouchers from Change4Life to help them try healthier snack options, including malt loaf, lower sugar fromage frais, and drinks with no added sugar.

Many of the unhealthy snacks children consume regularly are high in sugar and also typically high in calories, for example:

  • An ice-cream contains around 175 calories
  • A pack of crisps contains around 190 calories
  • A chocolate bar contains around 200 calories
  • A pastry contains around 270 calories[iii]

The “100 calorie snacks, two a day max” tip applies to all snacks apart from fruit and vegetables, as children should also be encouraged to eat a variety of these to achieve their 5 A Day.

Dr Alison Tedstone, chief nutritionist at Public Health England, said: “The true extent of children’s snacking habits is greater than the odd biscuit or chocolate bar. Children are having unhealthy snacks throughout the day and parents have told us they’re concerned.

“To make it easier for busy families, we’ve developed a simple rule of thumb to help them move towards healthier snacking – Look for 100 calories snacks, two a day max.”

Justine Roberts, CEO and founder of Mumsnet, said: “The volume of sugar kids are getting from snacks and sugary drinks alone is pretty mind blowing, and it can often be difficult to distinguish which snacks are healthy and which aren't. 

“This rule of thumb from Change4Life will help parents make healthier choices, which can only be a good thing."

PHE’s improved Change4Life ‘Food Scanner’ app also shows parents how many calories, sugar, salt and saturated fat is in their food to help make healthier choices easier. It can be downloaded from the App Store or Google Play.

With a third of children leaving primary school overweight or obese3, tackling obesity requires wider action and is not just limited to individual efforts from parents. PHE is working with the food industry to cut 20% of sugar from the products children consume most by 2020, with work to reduce calories due to start in 2018.

[1] The recommended daily maximum is no more than 5 cubes of sugar for 4- to 6-year-olds and no more than 6 cubes for 7- to 10-year-olds per day.

[i] Secondary Analysis of National Diet and Nutrition Survey (NDNS) rolling programme years 5&6 combined): https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/ndns-results-from-years-5-and-6-combined

[ii] NDNS: results from Years 5&6 (combined) https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/ndns-results-from-years-5-and-6-combined

[iii] Average calorie content of ice-cream, crisps, chocolate, and pastry calculated using:

  • McCance and Widdowson's the Composition of Foods: Seventh Summary Edition, Public Health England, Food Standards Agency, 2014
  • Food Portion Sizes(MAFF Handbook), 3 edition, Food Standards Agency, 2002
  • Kantar Worldpanel Data, 2017

Contact Information

Jamie Mills
020 765 48039
Jamie.Mills@phe.gov.uk

Notes to editors

Additional contact - Jessica Hampton / hampton@freuds.com / 07949 171217

About the Change4Life campaign

  1. The campaign has been designed to provide practical advice to families to help them choose snacks that are healthier than the ones they are currently purchasing. It does not reflect a change to official government advice.
  2. The Change4Life website and other campaign collateral will provide parents with healthier suggestions for snacks and drinks while at home and on-the-go, such as: fresh or tinned fruit salad; chopped vegetables and lower fat hummus; plain rice cakes; crackers; malt loaf; lower fat cheese; small low-fat, lower sugar yoghurt; sugar free jelly; crumpets; and Scotch pancakes.
  3. Parents can sign up to Change4Life for money-off vouchers: https://www.nhs.uk/change4life
  4. The campaign will run from Tuesday 2nd January 2018 across England for 8 weeks and will be supported with an exciting new TV and radio advert, out of home and digital advertising, social media, partnerships and nationwide roadshows.
  5. The C4L Food Scanner app can be downloaded from the App Store or Google Play.
  6. Please use the following link to download all campaign assets including the TV advert and campaign imagery: https://www.dropbox.com/sh/gsvbqtbbk33esul/AACvXFgIakSTcQjeKxrygDCXa?dl=0
  7. The campaign will include an exciting new TV ad made by Aardman animations, radio and digital ads, plus social media and outdoor advertising. Additionally, 3.6 million leaflets will be made available to families via primary schools, with information on healthier snacking and encouraging them to sign up for more helpful tips, ideas and special offers from Change4Life. Teachers will be able to download free new teaching resources to help pupils learn about healthy eating and snacking from the The School Zone.

Additional figures

  1. Recent figures from the National Child Measurement Programme (NCMP) show the number of obese children in Reception Year has risen for the second consecutive year (to 9.6%) and has shown no improvement in Year 6 (20%).[i]
  2. A quarter of children (24.7%) suffer from tooth decay by the time they turn five[ii] and tooth extraction is the most common cause of hospital admissions in children aged 5 to 9 years.[iii]

About Public Health England

  1. PHE exists to protect and improve the nation's health and wellbeing, and reduce health inequalities. It does this through advocacy, partnerships, world-class science, knowledge and intelligence, and the delivery of specialist public health services. PHE is an operationally autonomous executive agency of the Department of Health. For more information on PHE visit www.gov.uk/phe or follow us on Twitter @PHE_uk

Calculation of contribution of unhealthy snacks and sugary drinks to children’s diets:

 51.2% of sugar consumed by children comes from unhealthy snacks and sugary drinks each year. This includes biscuits, cakes, pastries, buns, confectionery (sweet and chocolate), fizzy and juice drinks, but doesn’t include fruit and vegetable juices and smoothies. (Ref: Secondary Analysis of National Diet and Nutrition Survey (NDNS) rolling programme years 5&6 combined): https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/ndns-results-from-years-5-and-6-combined

Foods contributing to sugar intake from snacks scaled up over a year (including non-consumers):

     

NDNS food group

Food group code

Mean consumption of food/drink g/day

Sugar g /day

Mean consumption of food/drink g/YEAR

Sugar g /YEAR

% contribution to sugar intake from snacks

% contribution to sugar intake from whole diet

 
 

Biscuits

7

15

3.9

5,605

1,408

17.1

7.8

 

Buns, cakes, pastries

8D, 8E

19

4.8

6,923

1,736

19.4

9.5

 

Icecream

53R

14

2.9

5,070

1,062

11.3

5.8

 

Savoury snacks

42R

10

0.0

3,567

7

0.1

0.0

 

Sugar confectionery

43R

8

4.4

2,822

1,591

12.2

6.7

 

Chocolate confectionery

44R

8

3.7

2,740

1,345

13.7

6.7

 

TOTAL (food)

 

73

19.6

26,728

7,150

73.8

36.4

 

Soft drinks

57, 58

288

9.1

105,352

3,323

26.2

14.7

 

Of which

     

0

0

0.0

   

Fizzy drinks with added sugar

57B

32

3.5

11,696

1,264

8.0

5.0

 

Other drinks with added sugar

57A, 57C

68

5.0

24,679

1,842

13.7

8.2

 

TOTAL (food and drink)

 

362

28.7

132,080

10,473

100

51.2

 

 Calculation of number of snack products children are consuming each year

Kantar Worldwide data was used to identify the highest purchased sugary snacks of families with children aged 5-11 in each of the relevant categories to calculate an average portion size weight for the category. The annual total grams consumed within the category were divided by the average weight of the portion to identify the number of products which make up the amount of sugar consumed each year. The data can be found in the below table alongside an example calculation:

NDNS food group

Total weight consumed each year (g)

Average weight of portion (g)

Total product consumption each year

Biscuits

5608

14.18

395

Ice creams

5070

73.2

69

Sweets

2822

26.2

108

Chocolate bars

2740

40.56

68

Fizzy drinks

11696

330 (can)

35 (cans)

Sugary juice drinks

24679

200

123

Cakes, buns and pastries

6923

56.7

122

Mean consumption of chocolate confectionery in g per year: 2,740 / the average portion weight for the category: 14.18 g = 2,740 /14.18 = 395 chocolate bars

[i] National Child Measurement Programme. Available at: http://content.digital.nhs.uk/searchcatalogue?q=national+child+measurement+programme&area=&size=10&sort=Relevance

[ii] Dental health 2014/15 survey of 5 year old children. Available at: http://www.nwph.net/dentalhealth/survey-results%205(14_15).aspx

[iii] Oral health profile. Available at: https://fingertips.phe.org.uk/profile/oral-health