Low-fat Products Get The Amber Light

Illawarra Mercury

Wednesday November 10, 2004

JESSICA HOUGH

The Aussie meat pie, and its counterpart the sausage roll, are slimming down to suit strict new school canteen regulations. JESSICA HOUGH talks to local bakeries stripping the fat from products.

TWO decades ago, a pie was the pinnacle of the school canteen lunch menu.

There were few things more pleasurable than hearing the metal drawer of the pie warmer open, the click of the tongs and the satisfactory clunk as the pie dropped into a paper bag.

All that has changed. Now pies come wrapped in plastic, with use-by dates stamped on them and a nutritional panel telling us just how much fat and salt we're eating.

The only thing that hasn't changed is the pie itself.

But, after more than 20 years of making pies with the same recipe, one of Wollongong's largest pie producers, Unanderra-based Betta Maid, is changing its formula.

The pie and sausage roll industry is undergoing a massive change, with businesses now rushing to produce reduced-fat, reduced-salt alternatives ahead of the compulsory introduction of the NSW Healthy Schools program.

Healthy Schools is a government initiative set to overhaul school canteens in favour of good nutrition. Many Illawarra Schools have already partially implemented the "traffic light" system which encourages green healthy foods; suggests amber foods such as pasta be eaten in moderation and red foods like chips and pastries only on occasion. The rest of the state's 2700 schools will be required to follow the system when kids return to school in 2005.

And this means pies and sausage rolls - traditionally high in fat and sodium - are out of favour.

For a large bakery like Betta Maid, which makes between 1800 and 2160 pies and 1800 and 2400 sausage rolls a day, the loss of the school market could mean financial disaster. But co-owner Donna Lavender, who took over Betta Maid six months ago with business partner Angela Paine, is optimistic the investment in making reduced-fat products will pay off.

"By doing the low-fat (products) we're hoping to get a lot more of the schools because there are not too many bakeries that meet the reduced-fat criteria," Donna says.

Leisure Coast Bakery, also at Unanderra, first started investigating reduced-fat options six months ago when the school they supplied with pies and sausage rolls, The Illawarra Grammar School, decided to commence the Healthy Schools program before the 2005 deadline. The bakery spent considerable funds and several months developing their reduced-fat products, and the results are encouraging.

"Our pie and sausage roll production has nearly tripled," pastry chef Ben Colyer, who was responsible for the healthier recipes, says.

One of the major hurdles local bakeries face in meeting the new criteria is reliable suppliers for their pastry ingredients and meat. Leisure Coast's relationship with Maxie's Meat carries them across the line, while Donna at Betta Maid also owns Lakeline Butchery guaranteeing her consistent supply.

But Betta Maid's pastry margarine still needs finetuning before manager Udo Boschan will be totally happy with the pies and sausage rolls, and before the products are eligible for a Heart Foundation tick of approval.

"We should have it now, but our major supplier of margarine has got to change again and they're trying to develop a new margarine that will mix in with the flour well and then it will be eligible," Udo says.

These delays could spell the end of the Illawarra's major bakers.

At the start of next term schools will want a reliable supply of pies and sausage rolls and if they can't get them locally, they'll look to Sydney bakeries. Currently, Betta Maid, Leisure Coast Bakery and Albion Park Cakes are producing reduced-fat products locally.

"Now a lot of suppliers are coming from Sydney, so that's why we're participating (in making reduced-fat products). That's why we're going for the Heart Foundation tick as well, because Big Ben and all them are Sydney-based, so we want to be the local-based supplier," Donna says.

Updating the nutritional value of their products is a make-or-break investment for many Wollongong bakeries and Ben says Leisure Coast Bakery laid a lot on the line to regain their school contract.

"It was a pretty long and hard process to go through because you didn't know 100 per cent what result you were going to get before you went and sent the pie away to be tested," he says.

"We had to fork out the money for it ... and you can't sell them to the schools unless you've had the analysis done by the laboratories, that's where it was really hard. The first result we got we failed, and only by 0.1 of a gram, which is one tenth of a teaspoon of saturated fat."

There is another challenge facing local bakeries. With the increased effort and expense in producing reduced-fat products, there is an increase in price.

"For small companies it's a big challenge because getting their products analysed is quite expensive and they're having to buy better quality meats and fats to put into them," Illawarra Area Health Service nutritionist Julie Parkinson says, "For a lot of school canteens they want to offer the cheap, reasonably priced food for kids and sometimes having better quality pies that are lower in saturated fat might cost a little more."

Cracking the school market is one thing, but Betta Maid hopes the reduced-fat option will catch on with the general public as well. Leisure Coast reports many adults are enthusiastic about reduced-fat options.

"The interest from (the general public) has been quite dramatic as well, the sales have increased quite dramatically," Ben says. "There's a lot more interest in other products that are low-fat as well now, they're starting to ask me about muffins and things like that."

Julie says this is encouraging, but not surprising, as Healthy Schools was always likely to change the culture of eating.

"School canteens are the biggest take-away food chain in Australia, there's one in every suburb, so they have big buying power and they can help drive a food service," she says.

"So, if you stipulate that you want certain foods that are lower in saturated fat, lower in salt and a more reasonable serving size then you help drive local businesses into selling those products and it's also a way of educating parents about what we feed families.

"Over 50 per cent of adults are overweight or have high cholesterol so there's quite a demand for healthy products."

The changes made to pies and sausage rolls for Healthy Schools means they will fall into the amber category meaning they're available every day, but should be consumed around twice a week. Had they contained the amount of fat and salt of a standard pie or sausage roll, they would be classified as red foods and only sold twice a term.

"It's still not a perfect food - that's why it's in the amber category - and you're much better off, if you're having a meat pie or sausage roll, having a fruit salad with it," Julie says.