SALT, FAT AND
SUGAR REDUCTION

Nutritional optimization of foods and beverages has always been a part of
product innovation. However, in my long career as a food scientist, both
in industry and as an academic, I cannot remember a period when this
innovation has reached such intensity. A trip to the supermarket reveals a
product range for celiacs far more diverse than at any other time.
Processed meats have brand leading reduced salt and fat variants with
some developed cured meats containing alternate or even organic nitrite
sources. The number of vegans in Ireland and the United Kingdom
increased fourfold between 2014 and 2019. Six percent of consumers in

the United States claim to be vegans, a 600% increase in 3 years. Plant-
based lifestyles have got the attention of producers with reduced meat or

meat-free variants of main-stream products reaching the marketplace.
Bioactive containing dairy and beverage products are widely available to
assist in maintaining a healthy “microbiome.” In the spring of 2018,
Ireland and the United Kingdom introduced a coordinated sugar tax on
soft drinks. For producers in Ireland,