Compass makes further progress on health and wellbeing targets

In its second year of reporting, Compass Group UK & Ireland it has recorded a further reduction in salt, fat and saturated fat, in thousands of recipes – alongside procuring and serving more vegetables.

The food and support services 50,000 strong team, serves 214 million meals annually within the UK and Ireland. Its team of Registered Nutritionists and Dietitians have analysed 24,000 recipes this year, building on the success of 2023. The focus has remained on reducing the levels of fat, saturated fat and salt using the traffic light labelling criteria – green is low in a particular nutrient, amber means medium and red is high in a nutrient.

Analysis of data has shown that almost 88 per cent of Compass recipes are low or medium in fat, over 93 per cent of recipes are low or medium in salt, 94 per cent of dishes are low or medium in sugar, and there has been a four per cent increase in veg portions procurement compared with 2022 (80g portions).

Compass has enhanced its healthy eating philosophy and progress through a number of key initiatives within sectors. This is alongside overall targets, which will see less than 10 per cent of its dishes being high in saturated fat and less than five per cent of its dishes being high in salt by 2030, while also increasing positive nutrients, embedding behavioural science, and educating customers, clients, and its own people. Compass is also on track to reduce sugar ahead of Government reduction targets.

Compass’ Nourished Life website has continued to gain traction in supporting health and wellbeing information and education.

Activity includes:

• Held quarterly webinars viewed by more 300 people for each session, covering key nutritional themes such as plant forward and heart health.
• Supported more than 50 clients with Nourished Life pop up events.
• Supported Compass’ ED&I agenda with workshops around female health and mental wellbeing for its Women in Food community and YouMatter, mental health awareness network.

Nicky Martin, Head of Nutrition, Compass Group UK&I said: “This progress shows that our work is gaining traction in meeting our overall targets, set for 2030. We have achieved a huge amount through menu reformulation, and we continue to make steady progress. We have a team of dedicated experts leading this agenda and I am looking forward driving further innovation in this area.”