Bell Pottinger Public Affairs worked with the Food and Drink Federation over an 18 month period from October 2005 until March 2007.

We were appointed primarily to support the food industry take forward its campaign with political stakeholders on front of pack nutritional labelling on pre-packaged food.

We worked closely with a group of major food manufacturers to launch their GDA based labelling scheme and instigated an intensive pre-briefing and briefing campaign with political stakeholders to explain why the industry had developed the scheme and why it was different to the scheme proposed by the Food Standards Agency.

We kept Parliamentarians appraised of developments in the roll out of the scheme among manufacturers and feedback from how it had been received by consumers. We worked closely with consumer PR agencies and nutritional experts to ensure that key messages were consistent among diverse stakeholder groups and to ensure that every communications opportunity was maximised.

In particular, we supported the Food and Drink Federation on a Parliamentary campaign on this issue – developing briefing for debates; promoting an Early Day Motion; developing lines of inquiry for parliamentary questions; preparation for speaking at All Party Group Meetings and a round table briefing session attended by senior back bench MPs.

Our work helped the industry establish GDA labelling as a clear alternative to the traffic light approach promoted by the Food Standards Agency. Currently both schemes are under review by an independent panel set up by the FSA to assess which one helps consumers to make healthier choices when food shopping. The review is expected to report in early 2009.

During our time working for the Food and Drink Federation we also undertook a political stakeholder audit looking at a wider set of issues facing the industry including skills, sustainability, trade and competitiveness. The audit supported a strategic discussion within the Food and Drink Federation on which issues to prioritise and develop over the following year.