Dolmio sauces firm defends '˜bold' once-a-week advice on products

The company behind Dolmio and Uncle Ben's sauces has defended its 'bold' advice that some products should only be consumed once a week because of high salt, sugar or fat content.

Mars foods said products would be reformulated over five years. Picture: Contributed

Mars Food said it would distinguish between “everyday” and “occasional” items on packs and on its website.

It said the move was “right”, as some foods were higher in salt, sugar or fat to give an authentic taste.

Some experts welcomed the move, while others said it did not go far enough.

Once a week “occasional” items include Dolmio lasagne sauces, pesto, and carbonara and macaroni oven kits, and Uncle Ben’s oriental sauces.

Fiona Dawson, global president of Mars’s food department, said: “Whenever you step up to the plate and do something bold there is the chance that headlines don’t capture the whole story - which often gets in the way of companies doing the right thing.”

She said Mars was holding itself to a “much higher standard” and based its recommendations on advice from the World Health Organisation.

She added that by 2021 it hoped to reduce salt content across its products by an average of 20 per cent and added sugar in its sauces by 2018.

Mars said its website would be updated over the next few months with the list of products to be eaten not more than once a week, and “everyday” ones.

The products the advice applies to are to be reformulated over the next five years.

Adults are recommended to have only 70g of fat, 20g saturated fat, 90g sugar and 6g salt a day.

Tam Fry, of the National Obesity Forum, a charity that raises awareness about the condition, described the move as “hugely unusual” but “very imaginative”.

He said: “Mars signposted their direction of travel towards healthier products several years ago and are now putting their money where their mouth is.”

The move comes after Chancellor George Osborne announced a sugar tax, with the aim of tackling childhood obesity, in his recent Budget.

And Ben Reynolds, deputy co-ordinator of food and farming alliance Sustain, said companies were “trying to scramble to show they can be good and do the right thing”, before the government releases its childhood obesity strategy later this year.

He added: “The truth of it is that anything that comes out of a packet, comes out of a jar, that has been processed, is not going to be particularly healthy for you.”