Saxby's

Saxby's is the UK's leading manufacturer of ready-made pastry for home cooking. It is privately-owned by the Saxby family. Their products are loaded with partially hydrogenated oil!

Here's what they told us when we wrote to them:

"Hydrogenated Vegetable Oils are permitted for use in food within UK & EU legislation. These ingredients are used in some of our products because of their unique properties which deliver the right taste, texture and freshness characteristics.

We are currently working to re-evaluate the levels of trans-fatty acids within the vegetable oil ingredients and investigating the possibility of replacing existing ingredients with those that are free from trans-fatty acids.

The Food Standards Agency recommend people should try to reduce the amount of foods eaten that contain hydrogenated or saturated fats and replace them with unsaturated fats.

Saxby's acknowledges the importance of medical advice that suggests we should reduce the amount of fat we consume. We will continue to work to ensure we provide our consumers with the best quality and best tasting food."

The good news is that they are "investigating the possibility of replacing existing ingredients with those that are free from trans-fatty acids". However this is a very weak commitment. They should make the removal of hydrogenated oil a commitment supported by a time frame.

There are no technical barriers to achieving this. There are other ready-made pastries on the market which do not contain hydrogenated oil. If they really wanted to get the hydrogenated oil out, they could do it in months!

Do write and ask them - will they commit to remove hydrogenated oil from their products? Will they set a target date?

Contact

Website: www.saxbys.co.uk
Address: Saxby Brothers Ltd, P.O. Box 15, Chester Road, Wellingborough, Northamptonshire NN8 1LH
Email: info@saxbys.co.uk