Well established in Canada and the US, one per cent milk is a relatively new concept in the UK. It sits in between skimmed and semi-skimmed options in terms of fat content and is seen by the Food Standards Agency (FSA) as an effective tool in the fight against fat.
Sainsbury’s, which launched the first private label version of one per cent fat milk in the UK last April, said the milk now commands a 10 per cent share of its total milk sales.
The supermarket predicts that sales of the milk will continue to grow and will overtake those of skimmed milk by spring 2010 and of full-fat milk shortly afterwards.
FSA support
The FSA welcomed the news of the sales growth. Rosemary Hignett, head of nutrition, said: “This news today is certainly a positive step and very much supports our campaign work to reduce the amount of saturated fat we are all eating.”
The FSA encourages food manufacturers and retailers to embrace one per cent milk both as a product sold directly to consumers and as an ingredient in other products like sauces and dairy desserts.
The agency said one per cent milk helps reduce levels of saturated fat in products if it is used in place of milk with a higher fat content.
It has a slightly higher fat content than skimmed milk (max 0.5 per cent) but a lower fat content than semi-skimmed (1.5–1.8 per cent) so can help reduce fat when it is used in place of semi-skimmed or full fat milk.