New trans fat pledge in Public Health Responsibility Deal

01-Oct-2012 - Last updated on 12-Mar-2017 at 01:00 GMT

Food service firms have effectively been given longer to reduce the level of artificial trans fats in the foods they serve under the Public Health Responsibility Deal with the Government.

Companies were previously asked to sign a single pledge to ensure artificial trans fats are not included in their products by the end of 2011.
The pledge has been updated and is now in two parts. Part F3(a) commits them not to use ingredients that contain artificial trans fats, while F3(b) says they are “working to remove artificial trans fats from our products within the next 12 months”.
The Department of Health, which is overseeing the various Responsibility Deals, said: “These changes recognise that some organisations will have taken the decision not to use artificial trans fats, others have already removed them from their products, and some are still working to remove them.
“We are working with partners signed up to the previous version of the pledge to assign them to the appropriate part of the revised pledge.
“Organisations signing up to F3(a), will just provide a delivery plan in which they confirm when they met this pledge. They will not be asked to provide annual updates. Organisations signing up to F3(b) will provide delivery plans and annual updates on their progress until they have completed this work and can transfer to part (a).”
Pizza Hut (UK), Pret A Manger and Mitchells & Butlers are among the companies to sign F3(a). Burger King UK is among those that has agreed to the second commitment.