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Michael Moss, a Pulitzer Prize-winning investigative reporter with the New York Times, has reported extensively on the food industry. His 2013 book, Salt Sugar Fat: How the Food Giants Hooked Us, talks of the inevitability of these ingredients in the success of processed foods , including sugar in the case of Coca-Cola’s and PepsiCo’s drinks, and people’s changing perceptions of them.
The cola giants’ path to ‘healthier’ alternatives has not been easy. PepsiCo’s efforts to push these foods drew flak from investors when sales dropped in 2010, which stoked Coca-Cola executives’ belief in “doubling down on soft drinks”. In an email interview with ET Magazine, Moss discusses the struggles and successes of processed food companies and what celebrities like Bachchan can do for healthy eating. Excerpts:
The processed food industry, including beverage makers, has come under serious attack, as you have illustrated in your book. Is it in the same position as the tobacco industry maybe three decades ago, and is it going to become a pariah of sorts, just like cigarettes?
In some key ways food is unlike tobacco. As the processed food industry points out, no single one of their products can be blamed for the obesity crisis. So for lawyers who might want to bring a legal case against the food giants like was brought against tobacco companies, the hurdles include what product or products to focus on? That said, the food companies are very sensitive to the issue of public trust, legal cases aside, and that’s why we’re seeing a number of companies respond very quickly to petitions by consumer advocates asking for changes in ingredients, etc.
With rising awareness of the benefits of eating healthy, do you see a change in people’s attitude toward processed foods, at least in the US?
I do. And not just on the West and East coasts. I sense we’re at a real tipping point throughout the US in which people are caring more and more about what they are putting into their bodies. It’s not yet clear to what extent this concern is translating to decisions about what to buy at the grocery store.
What are your thoughts on India as a market for these companies?
India is a marketing target for many of the food giants, including Kraft, which I wrote about in the book in terms of its introducing the Oreo cookie to the country. India too is facing a growing obesity problem that can be tied to the march of American-style processed foods around the globe.
That said, I was speaking about India recently with a food industry expert who used to work for Kraft, and he feels that the very smart technologists that India has may be able to help create truly healthy versions of processed foods that could work toward a global solution.
Many of the largest food companies have turned to developing markets for pure marketing reasons. As competition in the US grew fierce, it became more profitable for them to try to woo emerging middle-class economies, where there isn’t yet much competition, in hopes they will become habituated and brand loyal to their products. Brazil is a good example of this.
You must have read about Amitabh Bachchan’s comments on Pepsi which he used to endorse. He has been criticized for waking up a little too late. Do you think he did right? Can people like him influence people’s decisions?
Amitabh Bachchan can be hugely influential in helping people to reassess their eating habits and to understand the consequences — both to them personally and to India as a country — of eating a diet that is too dependent on highly processed foods. On the flip side, one of the things that makes the food giants so powerful is their use of famous people and celebrities to hawk their products.
Has there been a similar backlash against processed foods among public figures/celebrities in the US?
A bit, but by and large athletes are still very willing to sponsor the junkiest foods.
Are chips and fizzy drinks increasingly the most commonly consumed processed foods we have which feed our bodies excessive salt and sugar, respectively?
Not really. There are 60,000 products in the largest grocery stores, and those that deliver lots of refined starches and sugar and salt include cookies, ice cream, cakes, sweet breads, non-fizzy sugary drinks like sports drinks and iced teas, sugared yogurt, and on and on, along with chips and soda.
Given the importance of fizzy drinks in processed foods, do you believe Pepsi’s and Coca-Cola’s greatest success lies in convincing people of different cultures that their drinks are the best accompaniments to different foods, be it hamburgers or samosas?
Their success lies in brilliant marketing that hits our emotional buttons. Coca-Cola has been especially adept at associating Coke with big moments in our lives, like going to a sports event with parents, and ads that promote the drinks as providing energy and happiness.
Have Coca-Cola and PepsiCo been able to make great progress lately in their quest for ‘healthier’ drinks?
I don’t think so. Overall sales of both companies declined in the latest quarter. Soda drinking continues to edge downwards in the US and most of what is replacing it is sugary drinks of another sort, including sports drinks and tea and chocolate milk. Both companies are working on switching some of their sweeteners to stevia and other natural, lowcalorie sweeteners, with limited success thus far due to the taste. There is also a growing backlash against bottled water by environmentalists who criticize the packaging waste.
You talk about how Nestle is working on creating healthy alternatives at its labs in Switzerland though it hasn’t had much success yet. Are other food corporations as serious about healthy eating?
Yes there are. I write about Kraft undertaking an anti-obesity initiative, and since the book has come out a number of companies have been labouring to reformulate many of the products to lower the amount of salt, sugar, fat and calories. These are fairly small steps and the key will be whether the companies can weather the pressure from Wall Street to perform financially. When reformulated products don’t sell well, the food giants revert to their previous versions.
Food and taste scientists believe we’ve become habituated to the taste of sugar, fat and salt in food, and while the amounts of these that we like in individual products may not have changed much over the years, what has changed is that almost everything in the typical grocery store has become sweet, fatty or salty, often all three. This makes it harder to enjoy foods that have bitter notes, like many vegetables, and yet federal nutrition experts say we should be eating twice as many vegetables as we are now.
Former New York mayor Michael Bloomberg banned big servings of sugary drinks at eateries in New York last year. Is this the only way forward, with the government dictating what people eat and drink, to prevent cases of obesity and resultant ailments?
Actually he failed when the courts struck down his proposed rule, and while I’m sympathetic with people who criticized him as a nanny mayor, those people have to realize that in the absence of some sort of government intervention the playing field is not level for consumers. Like the rest of the processed food industry, the soda makers are spending tens of millions of dollars trying to get us to not just like their products, but to want more and more.
Does the processed food industry have any redeeming features at all, things we have to appreciate it for?
It can rightfully argue that it is feeding the world by providing low-cost, convenient and tasty food. And it’s only when you start factoring in the health costs of eating this food that this becomes problematic. More generally, I don’t view the industry as this evil empire that intentionally set out to make us overweight or otherwise ill.
Rather, the food giants are doing what all companies want to do: make as much money as possible by selling as many products as possible, and that is important to remember when it comes to thinking about solutions. The best approaches may be those that allow these companies to make money by selling healthier fare.
You mention in your book instances of healthy alternatives to companies’ mainstay products not doing well commercially and its implications, including the Wall Street’s response to a sales drop in PepsiCo’s ‘healthy’ foods. That is the case in India too, with companies junking many ‘diet’ products. How can food companies overcome this problem?
They need to have a much more thorough, aggressive approach to reformulating their products from the ground up, applying their food scientists and marketers to do some novel thinking and not just cut back a little on the salt, sugar or fat.
Isn’t it a bit unfair to blame food companies for not caring about customers’ health? Their investors want the highest returns, so the companies will focus on what sells in big numbers, even if it is high on salt, sugar or fat.
Yes. Just as I don’t see them as this evil empire, nor do I look to them to be philanthropies. They will be part of the health solution if, and only if, they can find a way to make money doing that.
Talking of your book, do you think it could have done with more examples of people who eat the foods you discuss and the price they pay for it?
Not really. I think Salt, Sugar, Fat’s biggest contribution was going inside the food giants to show how they have savagely marketed hyper-engineered foods knowing the links to obesity. So I wanted to concentrate on the documents and people inside the industry that allowed me to tell this story. From other journalists, most Americans know well the harm that excessive dependence on processed foods cause to people individually.
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