Smaller packages and portions will make it easier for Danes to maintain their weight
Packages and portions of food and beverages have grown over the past 30-40 years. So have Danes, to the extent that more than half of them are overweight. Yes please, a little less is a new initiative to help Danes maintain a healthy weight.
In the 00s, we taught Danes to eat more fruit and vegetables, and in the 10s we got them to eat twice as much wholegrain. The 20s will be the decade of portion sizes, where we will break the obesity curve in Denmark. Eighteen industry organizations, companies, trade unions, NGOs and authorities have joined forces in the private-public partnership Yes please, a little less.
"Over the past decades, we have been tempted by ever larger package and portion sizes. This makes us unconsciously eat and drink more without feeling fuller. This increases the risk of obesity and a number of serious diseases. We must put an end to supersizing. We want to roll back the trend to more normal sizes by having supermarkets, cafés, canteens and takeaways make portions a little smaller. We call it downsizing. And we consumers will eventually come to see 'smaller' as an added value in line with, for example, ecology or animal welfare," says Susanne Tøttenborg from the Danish Cancer Society and project manager of Yes please, a little less.
Smaller packages mean fewer calories
Even a small reduction of around 10% makes a difference, even if it is not visible or noticeable. A 115g chocolate scone instead of 130g once a week will reduce your weight by about 350g in a year. It may not sound like much, but when we are constantly exposed to the larger portions of all types of food and drinks, it can easily add up to a lot over a number of years if ½-1-2 kg creeps up every year.
"In Yes please, a little less, we are informing Danes about the link between obesity and portion sizes. But first and foremost, the packages and portions we are offered must be a little smaller, because obesity is not only the responsibility of the individual, but also the responsibility of society. Once a 25 cl soft drink was normal, now it is ½ liter, and a bag of sweets often contains 250-300 g.It iseasy for us to drink or eat everything without really considering whether we need itall," says Susanne Tøttenborg.
Plus on the CSR account
Downsizing does not have to be costly to the bottom line and can even be good for CSR. For some food manufacturers, supermarket chains and food service companies, reducing portion sizes is new, as it has been the other way around for decades. Several companies are downsizing and are reporting positively on their efforts. One of them is 7-Eleven, which wants to help drive the trend towards smaller sizes and higher quality. Therefore, smaller sizes with higher quality has been one of the criteria for suppliers in the latest tender for their bakery assortment:
" We have downsized several products over the years, and right now we have five specific products that we will soon downsize. We must deliver a high level of both quality and health in our stores, and downsizing serves both purposes. Firstly, you get fewer calories, salt, fat and sugar per product, but also because we can exchange what we remove in size for higher quality. This has been well received by customers and we are experiencing higher sales of the downsized products. Another initiative we also have in our stores is that we disclose the calorie content of our products so that customers can navigate by it," says Maria Gervig, Commercial Director at 7-Eleven.
Calculating the effect of downsizing on just two of 7-Eleven's bakery products, the annual savings amount to more than 13 million calories and 2.6 tons of fat, sugar and salt.
Facts and figures
- Yes please, a little less is an obesity prevention initiative to increase the availability and demand for food and drink products in slightly smaller packages and portions.
- Yes please, a little less is a partnership under the auspices of the Danish Council for Healthy Food. There are 18 partners: ALT for damerne/FIT LIVING, the Danish Brewers' Association, Coop, De Samvirkende Købmænd, DI Fødevarer, Fagligt Selskab for Kliniske Diætister, FOA, Fødevarestyrelsen, Healthy Skinny Bitch, Hjerteforeningen, Kost- og Ernæringsforbundet, Kræftens Bekæmpelse, Københavns Professionshøjskole, Landbrug & Fødevarer, McDonald's, Sundhedsstyrelsen, Tænketanken Frej, Aarhus University.
- 51%, or about 2.4 million adult Danes, are overweight. If the trend continues, this will be two out of three in 2045, of which one in three will be obese. Reference
- Portion size effect: large packages and portions make us eat and drink more without feeling fuller. This is true regardless of age, gender, education and socio-economic status. Reference
- The majority of people cannot tell the difference when they look at a range of common foods in two different sizes, i.e. one at 100% size and one 10% smaller. Reference 1 Reference 2
- About 20% of Danes' individual climate impact comes from our food consumption. If all Danes ate and drank 10% less as a result of downsizing, our climate footprint would - all other things being equal - be 2% smaller.
