Fast food giant KFC has launched a national initiative as part of World Salt Awareness week where it will encourages its customers to reduce their salt intake when they visit one of KFC’s 600 Australian stores.
For the duration of World Salt Awareness Week (10 March 2014 to 16 March 2014), KFC team members will actively encourage customers “to ask for unsalted chips” through new uniforms that have the phrase “Ask me for unsalted chips” printed on the front of t-shirts.
“KFC is committed to helping out customers reduce their salt intake,” said Fritz Meyer, Chief Food Innovation and Technology Officer at KFC Australia. “We have conducted a number of trials in-store to determine the best way to communicate and engage customers about their salt intake and we’re very proud to launch during Salt Awareness Week,” he said.
The move by KFC has been welcomed by the Australian Division of World Action on Salt and Health (AWASH).
“It’s great to see KFC getting on board with Salt Awareness Week,” said Professor Bruce Neal, Chair of AWASH and Senior Director at The George Institute for Global Health. “Having consumers understand the health risks associated with eating too much salt is a vital step. We hope other companies in the sector will follow this lead,” he said.
KFC said it has also been committed to reformulating a number of its products and ingredients to reduce the salt content in its food. The reformulations include:
• 2010: achieved an average 15 per cent reduction in sodium across core chicken menu items and a 21 per cent reduction in seasoned chip salt
• 2011: reduced sodium in burger buns by 30 per cent and dinner rolls by 37 per cent
• 2014 and onwards: further reductions across various menu items including tortillas, bacon and chicken products are currently in progress
“Since 2010, we have been on a journey to improve the nutritional profile of our menu proactively, implementing a salt reduction strategy to provide our customers with more choice and more nutritional menu options,” Mr Meyer said.
“We remain committed to working with industry and investing in nutrition initiatives to provide our customers with freshly prepared, great tasting food, delivered to the highest standard,” Mr Meyer said.
The KFC strategy is asking consumers to change their taste buds, rather than giving them products that they do not want.
