Earlier this month Asda sparked an outcry when it claimed its ads for whole milk, featuring Paul Whitehouse, would fall foul of Ofcom's rules prohibiting TV advertising of foods high in fat, salt or sugar (HFSS) during programmes watched predominantly by children. Using Ofcom's nutrient-profiling system, which was created by the FSA, whole milk is deemed less healthy.
But the FSA has told Marketing that whole milk could be advertised at any time. A spokeswoman said it did not wish to see whole milk prevented from being advertised to children and was 'concerned' by Asda's claimed predicament. 'During the development of the nutrient-profiling model, figures from the official UK food tables for the composition of whole milk met the criteria, which meant it could be advertised to children,' she said.
The FSA uses McCance and Widdowson's Composition of Foods, the industry standard for nutritionists, to gauge foods' health attributes.
Using its figures, an investigation by Marketing failed to show conclusively that whole milk falls into the healthy category. The average composition of whole milk, which includes pasteurised, sterilised and UHT, and pasteurised milk produced in the summer, are deemed healthy.
However, the average composition of pasteurised milk, excluding sterilised and UHT, when calculated across the winter and summer months qualifies as HFSS due to high lactose levels.
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