Memorandum submitted by Weight Watchers
(UK) Ltd
1. SUMMARY
— No special foods are required to
follow the Weight Watchers programme—the Weight Watchers
programme is based on a portion-controlled, flexible, healthy
eating plan.
— To assist our Members to keep track
of and manage what they eat, we have devised the POINTSTM
value programme.
— To complement the Weight Watchers
programme, we produce a range of healthy eating products which
are available through all major food retailers in the UK.
— Weight Watchers believes that consumers
should receive as much accurate and helpful information as possible
about the foods they are buying, to assist them in making informed
decisions.
— Food Safety is of the utmost importance
to Weight Watchers UK Ltd, and to assist in ensuring all licensed
products are produced to a high standard, requirements for all
licensees are documented and vigorously enforced.
— Licensed products can only be produced
at approved sites.
2. FOOD INFORMATION
2.1 The Weight Watchers Programme
No special foods are required to follow the
Weight Watchers programme: we help our Members to eat a healthy,
low fat, balanced diet consisting of controlled portions of whatever
food they like to eat. Exercise is an integral part of the plan.
There is scientific evidence that the Weight Watchers approach
is effective in helping people lose weight and maintain their
weight loss.
To assist our Members to keep track of and manage
what they eat, we have devised the POINTSTM value programme.
Each food has a certain number of POINTS values allocated
to it, depending on its calorie and saturated fat content. Some
foods, such as vegetables, are POINTS value-free, and some,
such as fruit, are very low in POINTS values.
Depending on their starting weight, Members
are allocated a certain number of POINTS values per day.
Within that total, they can eat what they like but are encouraged
to control portions and track/monitor what they eat. The POINTS
value allocation is designed to stimulate a gradual, healthy weight
loss in the region of 2 lbs per week.
2.2 Weight Watchers Healthy Eating Products
To complement the Weight Watchers programme,
we produce a range of healthy eating products which are available
through all major food retailers in the UK with the aim of providing
tasty, low POINTS value foods to support the Weight Watchers
programme. The Weight Watchers food range is produced under licence
by reputable and experienced food manufacturers.
These products are designed to enable our Members
to follow our POINTS value programme accurately and easily
and give the health conscious consumer quality low fat food products
from a trusted name. The POINTS values allocated to each
product are displayed on the packaging.
2.3 Nutritional content of foods
Weight Watchers believes that consumers should
receive as much accurate and helpful information as possible about
the foods they are buying, to assist them in making informed decisions.
Our products display information about the nutritional contents
which, in addition to the POINTS value information, gives
our Members and others guidance and choice. We look forward to
making a positive input to the forthcoming European regulations
on nutritional labelling.
All our licensed products are developed with
the aim of producing a balanced food with as low or lower POINTS
value than a similar food currently on the market, without any
compromise in taste and realistic portion sizes.
This has been achieved by much of our licensed
product range showing lower fat levels than traditionally prepared
similar foods. Fibre technology has been successfully used in
our cake range to reduce fat levels while our sandwich range uses
carefully selected low fat foods for the fillings.
The ongoing development requirement of our licensees
is to further reduce calories by lowering sugar levels, either
by reducing sugar levels as an ingredient, or by replacing with
accepted sweeteners, such as intense sweeteners as in our fat
free yogurts, or with polyols where a bulk matrix is still required
as in the manufacture of cakes.
Salt levels in line with the Food Standards
Agency recommendations are currently under review. The sandwich
range is made from reduced salt bread and our range of breads
will shortly be re-launched with at least 15% less salt.
Such development is ongoing and all new products
must satisfy our requirements to target lower fat, sugar and salt
levels. We aim to continually improve the nutritional profile
of our products as we believe that all consumers should be given
all the nutritional information they require.
2.4 Food safety
Food Safety is of the utmost importance to Weight
Watchers UK Ltd, and to assist in ensuring all licensed products
are produced to a high standard, requirements for all licensees
are documented and vigorously enforced.
A Licensed System Quality Manual has been developed
based on Good Manufacturing procedures, Quality Assurance principles,
HACCP (Hazard Analysis Critical Control Points) requirements and
Crisis Management. The Manual gives the minimum standards required
for any manufacturing unit preparing Weight Watchers UK Ltd licensed
products, and before any products can be produced, the site is
audited to the standards of the Manual by a qualified person who
has the authority to grade the unit as to its acceptance as an
approved site. Once approved the site is checked annually to the
same standard by independent qualified auditors.
New products must undergo a documented new product
development procedure which involves at least three trial production
runs, nutritional analysis, shelf life testing, taste panels,
compliance with food safety requirements and microbiological testing
at all stages of development, and only if a product is successful
at all stages will it be released for retail sale.
Specifications for each product are set during
the development stage and these are used as a reference for production.
Changes are only allowed by agreement following supportive evidence.
Product ingredients must come from reputable
audited suppliers with agreed specifications. Additives are allowed
in our products provided the additive is permitted and that the
amounts used comply with food safety requirements.
Genetically modified ingredients are not currently
permitted.
To further support our due diligence on food
safety we have an independent regulatory company monitoring all
our procedures and to independently analyse Weight Watchers UK
Ltd at point of sale.
2.5 Food production
Licensed products can only be produced at approved
sites using equipment that is functional for the purpose, included
in a cleaning schedule and regularly maintained.
Specifications agreed during the development
stage are adhered to during production runs which specify online
checks and final product checks before release for distribution.
The Licensed System Quality Manual controls
the requirement of the production site, quality of ingredients,
traceability of ingredients and finished products, and the ability
of the site to respond to any recall procedures that may be necessary.
The production site must also have a customer
care operation to deal with all customer complaints and to be
able to interpret the significance of such complaints with regard
to the safety of Weight Watchers UK Ltd products.
2.6 Ethical considerations
The Licensed Systems Quality Manual specifies
adequate facilities for all employees and for all ingredients
to be purchased from reputable suppliers, with traceability in
place to ensure ingredients are genuine and from an acceptable
source.
19 April 2004
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