Carlsberg Britvic, Danone North Europe, KP Snacks, Nomad Foods and Premier Foods plc have written to the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care setting out their commitment.

If adopted at mandatory level, the approach would make the UK the first country in the world to require healthy food sales reporting across the entire food system.

A voluntary head start

The five signatories will begin publishing healthy food sales data voluntarily from next year, ahead of any regulatory requirement to do so. In their letter, the companies frame the move as a way of testing methodology before it is rolled out more widely, stating that they are “committed to sharing their experiences of introducing reporting, the pitfalls and the watchouts, to help other companies adopt the approach and to support government in designing a system that is both robust and workable at scale within this parliament.”

The letter also anticipates the group will grow. The companies say they expect more manufacturers to join as early adopters “iron out complex challenges, such as how to reflect mergers and acquisitions or split out UK-specific reporting from current global reporting commitments.”

Industry voices back transparency

Karen Betts, chief executive of the Food and Drink Federation, said the data generated would give government a practical means of tracking policy impact: “We share the government’s ambition to improve diets across the country, and we believe that the data and transparency that reporting will bring will incentivise companies to double down on progress, and give government a valuable tool to measure the impact of health policies.” She added that the group intends to move now rather than wait for legislation: “That’s why we’re not waiting for regulation, but starting to report now on data that companies already hold.”

Richard Hall, vice president general secretary at Danone North Europe, positioned the pledge as consistent with the company’s existing approach: “At Danone, we believe transparency is one of the best ways to drive progress on health and have long chosen to go beyond mandatory health and nutrition reporting requirements.” He said a shared measurement framework would benefit the wider sector: “The more we collectively measure and share, the easier it is to see what’s working, where barriers remain and the opportunities to accelerate progress towards better health outcomes.”

Nick Brown, director of environment, social and governance at Premier Foods, pointed to the company’s existing disclosures against the government’s own framework: “Through disclosure, we have the opportunity to demonstrate the progress we are making and where further progress can be achieved, which is why we are proud to have already disclosed against metrics aligned to the UK Government’s Food Data Transparency Partnership.”

Building on an existing model

To meet the timescale set out in the letter, the five manufacturers plan to report using the current Nutrient Profiling Model — the same scoring system that underpins existing High Fat, Sugar and Salt (HFSS) advertising and promotion restrictions. The letter notes that a newer profiling model exists but would require companies to develop new measurement methodologies, which “would delay reporting.” Using the established model, by contrast, means reporting can begin at pace since it is “already implemented into business systems.”

The letter also points to early evidence that HFSS restrictions are shifting consumer behaviour, citing University of Leeds research which found that sales of “Less Healthy” foods fell by 2 million a day between 2021 and 2023. The manufacturers say their own recipe reformulation work sits alongside this: across their combined product ranges, they report 19% less sugar, 18% less salt and 17% fewer calories than five years ago.

Framework

The pledge is notable less for its immediate scale — five companies, using an existing scoring model — than for what it signals about the direction of UK food policy. By moving before legislation exists, the signatories are positioning themselves to help shape a mandatory framework rather than simply respond to one, and their letter explicitly invites government to treat their rollout as a testbed for wider adoption.

The harder questions are acknowledged rather than resolved. The letter itself flags unresolved complexities around mergers and acquisitions and the split between UK-specific and global reporting — issues that will matter more as the group expands beyond five founding members. Whether government moves to make reporting mandatory within this parliament, and whether the Nutrient Profiling Model remains the basis for it, will determine how much of this early voluntary work translates into lasting policy.