Calls for low fat cheddar in sandwiches and pizza
IT IS Britain’s most popular cheese with a heritage dating back 900 years but now the food police are getting stuck into cheddar.
Officials want people to eat more low and reduced-fat cheddar in everything from sandwiches to pizzas.
They are even looking at scrapping 40-year-old labelling laws to help consumers beat bulging waistlines.
A Food Standards Agency document outlines its aim to more than double sales of lower-fat styles – currently less than 10 per cent – and says: “It is our goal that the reduced-fat sub-market grows to over 25 per cent of the cheddar market by 2015.”
The 40-year-old law facing abolition forbids use of the name cheddar when fat content is less than a third, introduced to stop cheap products pumped with water.
New high-quality, low-fat hard cheeses still cannot use the name.
Cheddar accounts for around half of all cheese eaten in the UK which the agency says makes it a major source of saturated fat in the diet.
Nigel White, of the British Cheese Board, praised low-fat varieties but warned they did not always fit the bill. “For everyday uses they work really well but because fat is what gives it the texture and a creamy cheese seems to taste much nicer, for special occasions people will tend to stick with traditional cheeses.”
The agency will publish its recommendations later this year.
