Early in September on a day of cloudless blue skies the Trafalgar Hotel in London welcomed several leading industry figures to debate how the fresh produce sector could take advantage of the Olympic and Paralympic Games and the feelgood factor surrounding them.
At a time when fruit and veg consumption, in both the UK and Europe, is static at best and perhaps even falling back, the issue of how to engage the public in healthy eating has never been so pertinent. The event was hosted by Florette and FPJ, with the bagged-salad brand’s ambassador Roger Black offering his views as both an ex-professional athlete and a parent.
Roger Black: We have a window, an opportunity to grab this unique moment and drive it into society. In theory, if the Jessica Ennis and Chris Hoys of this world are inspirational heroes to young children, then they will want to be like them, and in every interview I’ve seen they say they eat well. Everyone understands that’s a part of their performance. We should be able to grab that. But we don’t need an Olympics to know that, so there’s a block somewhere. How do we get through that block? If the Olympics could play its part in getting us through that block then that would be one of the greatest legacies of the Games.
Fergus Lowe, founder, Food Dudes: It is fundamentally about role models. One of the biggest impediments to kids eating healthily are the sporting figures sometimes, who promote other kinds of foods. They are the wrong role models most of the time. And that creates strong peer pressure in schools to eat Mars bars etc. If you look at the lunchboxes kids take to school, it’s dominated by those energy-dense, nutrient-poor foods. Even if you look at school meals, desserts are dominated by cake, so often kids don’t even sample produce.
Richard Cienciala, deputy director, health & wellbeing, Department of Health: You said sportsmen always talk about healthy eating in their interviews. For me that issue of transference is at the hub of this question. I’ve no doubt, based on the sample size of my family, that there’s tremendous enthusiastic support for the Olympics. I haven’t quite picked up any cues though that people are deducing they need to do something about their eating habits.
Neil Sanderson, MD, Florette: Our rugby club has had about 30 per cent more kids come to pre-season training this year than last year. Even the guys who don’t normally come to pre-season have come this year. That must have something to do with the Olympics. Some coaches have been quite inspired.
RB: I think diet and Olympic sport plays a part, but it’s only just a part. One of the dangers that could turn people off is thinking you need such a strict diet to be an Olympian, but it isn’t the case. We aren’t talking about high-performance eating here, we’re just talking about common sense, balance. It comes back to the same old equation, which is do exercise, care about what you eat, and you’ll be okay.
Elaine Smith, marketing manager, Florette: Healthy eating’s also about looking and feeling good - encouraging people to embrace that and giving them inspiration for how to do that. There’s still a lack of understanding of the categories that we promote and how you can make something interesting and delicious for your whole family. There’s an education still to be done to get consumers embracing the categories.
Sarah Dawson, chair, NFU board for horticulture: Speaking of coaches, I think that translates nicely to teachers and how important they are in setting those structures for children. What always staggers me is the lack of knowledge from teachers about diet and the communication of that. Vanity is very interesting in encouraging people to do various things, and certainly from a ‘what will make me eat healthily’ point of view, as a kid I didn’t have a great diet, I wasn’t the best cook, I went to school and my food tech was all about essays, we did very little cooking, and I didn’t know what to do with a swede until I was 21. What made me improve my diet was vanity. I truly believed that my skin would be better, I would look prettier, my hair would be nicer, and that’s something that for me personally was important.
ES: Maybe PE teachers should also be talking about diet in a bit more detail.
Nigel Jenney, CEO, FPC: We need to look at how we deliver the opportunity. We’ve had the 5 A DAY programme for some time - does the government see this as a positive opportunity to relaunch or reinvigorate that? Or are we moving on to a new idea or concept?
RC: We tend to scratch our heads a bit over fruit and veg. It’s one of those classic areas where most people know the goal. 5 A DAY is part of our psyche, yet the reality doesn’t match it and we are a bit stuck as we aren’t really making progress. So we would love to capitalise on any linkage with anything that gives national, social momentum, and if we can somehow do that with the Olympics, brilliant. At the moment our thinking is less about having another go at 5 A DAY, as awareness is very high anyway, it’s more about how you can use our Change4Life brand to try to boost adherence and increasing fruit and veg consumption is one of the dietary pillars of that. So how do you grab some of this energy and excitement that you have at the moment and apply it to this boring, tricky area of diet that we all know about but we find it hard to comply with?
NS: The word is ‘inspiration’. They’ll only do it if we get them to do it. I don’t think there’s a natural link where we’ll talk about Chris Hoy or Mo Farah and their diets. If people are just eating fruit and veg because it’s 5 A DAY and they’d rather eat a packet of crisps or have a McDonald’s... It’s about getting people to see the link.
RB: Every Olympian has great genetics. If the message is ‘if you don’t eat your fruit and veg you will never be healthy’, it isn’t true. I think the message is ‘you can eat whatever you want, but be sensible. Make the right choices’. It’s a battle, but you can do it.
FL: All of us often know what to do. But we have two levels to our brains - one that knows what to do, and a more primitive bit that drives us on to do exactly the same things and not to change. And it’s a really hard task to change that bit. While we continue to underestimate how hard that is, we’ll continue to have an obesity problem. We’ll also have it until we get serious about it - not just using Mo and some of the gang periodically. That can play an important part in a serious campaign, but we need a serious approach.
Laurence Olins, chair, British Summer Fruits: British Summer Fruits runs a campaign to increase the consumption of berries. And we have been uniquely successful - the total market now is £800m, and it was about £200m in 2004 when we started. We banged on two areas - health and beauty - throughout the eight years and we have linked in with various other organisations. We felt we couldn’t do it entirely on our own to extend our reach. We’ve concentrated totally on young adults and young families, those are our two key audiences. Looking at the Olympics legacy there’s two angles to this. There’s exercise, which we have no influence on, and there’s diet, which follows on from exercise. A lot of people now are encouraged to do more exercise. Halfords is selling bikes like mad now. We in the food industry need to slipstream that. If people are going to do more exercise they should have a good diet alongside that. I would advise people to use all the agencies out there, charities and other bodies to extend your reach, to support exercise.
FL: It’s the same message - eat sensibly, eat more fruit and vegetables, take some exercise and you will live far longer and you’ll have fewer years of pain before you die. The average is about eight years of suffering before you die. It’s incontrovertible in terms of the science. Good looks, hair, teeth - it all benefits from a good intake of fruit and veg.
NS: We are quite a large advertiser in a fruit and vegetable context, but we’re tiny compared to the broader food industry. I’m not a supporter of banning anybody from putting their messages out, but sometimes we need to find a way of getting the right messages in at point of thought, whether that’s Change4Life or not.
RB: That’s really difficult because McDonald’s and Coke are global sponsors, and my kids associate the Olympics with McDonald’s and Coca-Cola. I’m not fighting that. My kids went to McDonald’s after the Olympics because it was the only place to get something to eat, and it was great.
SD: Why not partner up? These guys are desperate to be seen as healthy image brands, so are we missing a trick by seeing them as the enemy and not working with them? We should embrace the idea of working with these guys far more than we do because they involve far bigger budgets than the government could ever dream of.
NJ: It’s brand recognition and which do you trust - Government Plc or brand McDonald’s? There are healthy options at McDonald’s. The question is what proportion of what’s being sold are those versus the others. We have to look at the market place in reality. There are a number of opportunities for the produce industry. As a sector we have the hard reality that some people are presenting themselves particularly well and increasing market share substantially, but the overall market is static so we’re not challenging the processed food manufacturers, we’re challenging each other. If 5 A DAY is our target, we’re still around the 2.5 portions mark so the opportunity is to double our sales, but we’re just moving it between our businesses and between our sectors.
Michael Barker, editor, FPJ: In dairy the industry has got together and created the milk moustache, with Myleene Klass, Amir Khan and others. Couldn’t the produce industry get together and do something similar?
FL: I think you’ve got to face the reality that’s already been mentioned. You will be swamped by McDonald’s, Coca-Cola, Walkers crisps. You’ve got an imbalance in marketing spend. So that’s what you’re up against. But there is another opportunity. We’ve got kids in school every day of the week where they’re getting most of their food experiences. We’ve got an obligation to help kids eat balanced diets. We’re not fulfilling that. That’s where the opportunity lies. We should be arranging the environment in schools to influence the kids’ choices.
NS: With the BLSA we’ve got match funding for the PR campaign. I compare that to the grant funding my sister companies get in Spain and France, and they are much better at doing it. But it’s much more about how the organisations set themselves up to do it, rather than the desire to do it.
LO: Convincing people in Chile and Spain to join an integrated campaign was about telling them they’d get increased sales, which is what they’ve done. The difference with the berry campaign and other fruits is we’re 12 months a year. Our message is consistent, all the time, doesn’t matter where the berries come from. That’s a disadvantage that produce has against McDonald’s and Coca-Cola - theirs is a consistent message. So you have to be there all the time - you can’t just promote during the British season. What can we do to link up with sports?
RB: You probably need a sports marketeer. You could sponsor a big event. You can associate with certain sporting federations, or you get hold of the British Olympic Association. The cheapest way is to get in bed with an athlete because then you get the association with the Olympics without actually having to become an ambassador. The important thing is to make it work.
ES: What you [the berry campaign] have done is spot on as it’s a slipstream of costs, getting in with the nutritionists. But it also means you can be very targeted, you can pick up on this vanity issue and get into the women’s press and have a really tight campaign that works really well.
FL: We use role models a lot. Olympians could really help what we’re doing. Getting endorsements, having Olympians showing what can be achieved, making the link between activity and diet.
RB: From a marketing point of view, there are 65 British Olympic medallists. Even more Paralympians. The impact of them going into schools, doing events, is huge, because they’re right there. That’s where the impact happens. If you really want to initiate change there has to be a physical and emotional connection.
RC: I want to just touch on a note of caution. There’s always this debate on the extent to which ultra-competitive sport can exacerbate inequalities by being a boost and a motivator for those that are already on the track in some way. But it can leave others behind who view gyms as a torment and so on. If the result of all this marketing surge is that you exacerbate inequalities then that’s not great.
NJ: I come from a very sporting family, but there is a proportion that choose not to. I can’t see why, given the few weeks we’ve had, they wouldn’t be interested in having a go, at least at something.
RB: If that’s a concern then don’t teach kids maths, because there are kids that don’t like maths. One word blows this whole debate about inequality out of the water: Paralympics. This has shown how sport can be a life changer, a life saver. It’s about just having a go at sport.
SD: If I hadn’t been made to run around the pitch I wouldn’t have done it. But it was that gruelling structure that dictated to me that I had to do it. I also wanted to throw something else out there. I’m extremely excited by the potential prospects of science. I would like to take a 10 acre field and produce 10 times the nutritional value out of the production. Why couldn’t one strawberry give you one of your 5 A DAY? Why shouldn’t one cabbage leaf be sufficient? Why can’t science focus on increasing the nutritional value?
LO: Nutrition is the last thing we’re worried about. The three priorities are flavour, shelf space for the supermarket, yield for the grower. The real problem in our industry is we’re seasonal, we come from a whole range of different sources, and we can’t work together. We’ve failed miserably on campaigns. The irony is all the products are good for you - that’s the strength.
RB: The great thing for you as an industry is you have the product, you have a wonderful opportunity, nobody’s going to argue against it. I do think it’s an opportunity and I would hate it if in a year’s time we look back and say we missed it. We know there is a wave, and we don’t know how long it will last. The businesses and sectors that ride that wave will look back and say the Olympics was great. -
The ‘L’ WORD
All the talk over the summer has been about ‘legacy’, a subject that Roger Black focused on during the roundtable:
“The last seven years have been all about getting ready for what’s just happened. The Olympic Games have surpassed all our expectations. The things we remember the most are the facilities were all built on time; secondly, the weather helped; thirdly, we needed the British team to do well. The London Games also needed global stars to deliver and we saw Olympic history from Michael Phelps and Usain Bolt. It surpassed our expectations.
“The question now is what do we do with it, and the word that gets bandied around all the time is ‘legacy’. And the problem with that is no one really knows what that is. The challenge is, there is a legacy to come off the Olympics and it effects everything in society. There’s a sporting legacy - getting more people involved in sport. It goes into a legacy from a business point of view: how do we grab this wonderful event and drive it into business? How do we get more young people interested in sport? But can the Olympic Games play its part in the health of the nation? In theory, of course it must do. I’ve seen the impact the Olympics has on kids and their friends. It has inspired a generation.” -
THE PUBLIC VIEW
We have heard from the experts, but what about the public? Thomas Hobbs and Lily Gandhi headed to the streets to canvass public opinion.
“The fact McDonald’s was the lead sponsor of this year’s Olympics is a disgrace and promotes the wrong message for children.”
“As much as I support a move to have gold medallists promote healthy food, I think it all comes back to parents and whether or not they can hammer home to their children the long-term benefits of a healthy diet.”
“The likes of Mo Farah and Jess Ennis can be role models for fruit and vegetables. Athletes represent the pinnacle of health, so the fresh produce industry has a chance to jump on the success of the Olympics.”
“I come from New Zealand and I have definitely noticed a dip in food standards during my time in the UK. Hopefully the Olympics can revitalise schemes such as Jamie’s school dinners.”
“I don’t think there is much more the government can do as the big fast-food corporations have the most money to advertise; something has to change but I am not sure how that can happen.” -
QUOTE, UNQUOTE
Roger Black: “If you link up with the Olympians directly you can bypass the bureaucracy of having to go and get to them. As individuals it’s very different. You can have an association with the Olympics. There’s also a discussion to be had with the marketing agents.”
Neil Sanderson: “Why does the 5 A DAY message work? Because people see it over and over again in lots of different places. If you can get that consistency of messages over a period of time that’s when people start getting it.”
Nigel Jenney: “There is a proportion of people that choose not to do sport. I can’t see why, given the few weeks we’ve had, they wouldn’t be interested in having a go, at least at something.”
Sarah Dawson: “Remember the Milk Cup [the old Football League Cup]? What about the AHDB getting, say, 50 per cent match funding from Europe and having a Fruit and Veg Cup?”
Elaine Smith: “There’s still a lack of understanding of the categories that we promote and how you can make something interesting and delicious for your whole family.”
Fergus Lowe: “If the sporting heroes would actually make those connections between performance and what you actually eat it could be huge. Too often we don’t see it.”
Richard Cienciala: “On the future of the SFVS, all I can give you is boring official lines. I’m not aware of any plans to change it, but it’s not directly my patch. I’m not aware of any covert review, let alone a public one.”
Laurence Olins: “I would advise fresh produce sectors to use all the agencies out there, charities and other bodies to extend your reach and to support exercise.”
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