Reformulation for health

Reformulation support for Scotland

We all know that the impacts of a poor diet and obesity are profound. The Scottish Government's obesity prevention plan: A Healthier Future highlights the visions and ambitions of improving diet and health across our nation.

Recipe reformulation is rated as one of the most effective ways industry can help improve dietary health.

Our Reformulation team is helping small to medium sized food companies to reformulate their products. This support is available for both FDF members and non-members. This project is funded by the Scottish Government and we work with a range of partners to help businesses access a wide range of support and funding.

What is reformulation?

Reformulation involves making changes to an existing recipe to boost the health profile of the product. We work to enable the 8 principles of reformulation which will have the biggest impact on the dietary health of the consumer.

The process of reformulating is different for each manufacturer. We will review your current nutritional specification, and benchmark this against existing market trends to ensure that any work done now strengthens your product’s longevity, we will map any upcoming industry guidelines and legislations which may affect your product. We use a holistic approach to reformulation, and will present all the nutritional improvements for your product that could be achieved through reformulation.

Most importantly, we will encompass what is important to your brand specifically and ensure that reformulation works for you.

Working with us

The reformulation for Health team will work to find a tailored solution for each business. This may include reducing fat, salt and sugars from products; or increasing levels of fibre and fruits and vegetables within foods; or even looking at portion size and clearer labelling information. No two reformulation projects are the same, and while some may be as simple as replacing salt for a low sodium alternative, others may utilise multiple principles to get the most out of your reformulation.

While we are here to support Scottish SME size manufacturers, we understand that there are other key influencers to reformulation. We can work with ingredient suppliers or manufacturers who feed into Scotland, as making a change to one pre-made ingredient can help hundreds of manufacturers who use these ingredients in Scotland.

With our Reformul8 Partnership we are working to bring together all these influencers, to improve connectivity and make reformulation more facile. If you are involved in reformulation in any way, we would love to discuss opportunities to collaborate.

Get in touch to find out how we can help your business now!

The 8 Principles of Reformulation

Updates

Reformul8 Challenge Fund 4

Update

08 January 2024

The Reformul8 Challenge Fund round 4 is live!

Scottish SME food and drink manufacturers can now apply for up to £5,000 to invest in reformulation. The grant can be spent on any aspect of the existing product development process, to achieve any (or many) of the 8 principles of reformulation shown above. This could include the cost of trial ingredients, nutritional analysis, new equipment or labelling, to external consultancy. We have many Reformul8 Partners we can connect you to for support, including ingredients suppliers and existing product development experts.

Terms and conditions of the fund can be viewed here.

Need some inspiration? Read case studies of previous recipients of the fund here.

APPLY NOW!

Closing date 16th February 2024.

Contact reformulation@fdfscotland.org.uk if you’d like to discuss your own reformulation project.

Christmas update 2023

21 December 2023

As the year draws to a close, we commend the food and drink industry for keeping the nation nourished and satisfied. The Reformulation for Health team has been extremely busy developing bespoke support for the food and drink industry. We extend our gratitude, and warm wishes to our colleagues and partners throughout the industry this Christmas.

What have we achieved in 2023?
✔️ Developed the Healthier Product Innovation Fund in partnership with Interface. A total of £75,000 was shared between 8 projects to develop healthier food and drink products. This provided ‘hands free’ support for manufacturers, as the funding was awarded to an academic partner who carried out the work on their behalf.
✔️ We released our Sodium reduction supplier database to help manufacturers learn about the various methods of sodium reduction, and make contact with the Reformul8 Partners who can help.
✔️ Developed the Healthier Bakery Fund in partnership with FSScot. Awarded £50,000 to 13 Scottish Bakeries to help make their products healthier.
✔️ Hosted the free webinar Healthier Bakery: a recipe for reformulation success. A recording is available on our website.
✔️ Helped our friends at Scottish Bakers to judge at the Scottish Baker of the Year, and the World Championship Scotch Pie Awards
✔️ Featured on a Bakery and Snacks podcast.
✔️ Developed new case studies from the Reformul8 Challenge Fund round 3.
✔️ Contributed to the Highlands and Islands’ ‘Food and Drink Reformulation’ webinar.
✔️ Established a new research project in collaboration with NESTA: ‘Scottish retailers supply chain and reformulation research’.
✔️ Connected with even more SME manufacturers at the Taste of Lomond supplier event.
✔️ Shown our commitment to reducing childhood obesity at the Obesity Action Scotland Conference.
✔️ Grown our Reformul8 Partnership to a network of 66 organisations. A fantastic illustration of the growing momentum for reformulation.

We will be back in 2024 with even more exciting opportunities and events for Scottish food and drink manufacturers. Here’s to future collaborations and successes 🥂

Healthier Bakery Webinar

25 October 2023

Healthier Bakery; a recipe for reformulation success

Join our free webinar focussing on reformulation in the bakery sector.

We have a range of industry and ingredient experts ready to guide you through the recipe tweaks that can help futureproof your products and your business, from: