Food and drink manufacturers have provided 2bn portions of fibre to the country since 2021 through the Food and Drink Federation’s (FDF) Action on Fibre campaign.

This comes after significant investment made by food and drink brands to update recipes and launch products which add fibre to diets.

Since the launch of the campaign, brands have brought 500 new ‘source of fibre’ or ‘high in fibre’ products and recipes to the UK supermarkets over the last five years.

Alongside the change to products, food manufacturers and retailers have been working to raise awareness about fibre consumption.

Aldi has made a pledge to share recipe inspiration and practical meal ideas to help shoppers incorporate more high-fibre products into their diet.

Lidl has nearly doubled sales of whole grains by incentivising shoppers with monthly discounts of nearly 30 per cent.

Subscribe to Grocery Gazette for free

Sign up here to get the latest grocery and food news each morning

Moving forward, the FDF urged the government to work alongside the industry to improve the awareness around fibre intake for consumers.

Kate Halliwell, chief scientific officer, FDF, said: “Fibre is a powerhouse in terms of its potential health benefits, and it’s brilliant to see the range and scale of change that food and drink manufacturers have made.

“Imposing advertising and promotion restrictions on many of these healthier choices seems counter-intuitive and risks them disappearing from shelves. This would be a backwards step when the majority of us are still not eating the recommended 30g a day.

“We believe that introducing mandatory reporting on healthier food sales would help to incentivise businesses to go further and build momentum on developing higher fibre choices.”