HWCF to Cut 1.5 Trillion Calories by 2015

WASHINGTONThe Healthy Weight Commitment Foundation (HWCF) joined First Lady Michelle Obama and the Partnership for a Healthier America in announcing its new pledge to reduce 1.5 trillion calories by the end of 2015, a decrease HWCF member companies intend to sustain in subsequent years.

Healthy Weight Commitment Foundation manufacturing companies will pursue their calorie reduction goal by developing and introducing lower-calorie options, changing recipes where possible to lower the calorie content of current products, or reducing portion sizes of existing single-serve products. These calorie reductions are in comparison with what was available in the marketplace in 2008.

The Partnership for a Healthier America, for which the First Lady serves as honorary chair, is an independent, non-partisan organization that is working to mobilize action around the specific goals of the Lets Move! campaign to curb child obesity within a generation. 

Solving the obesity epidemic requires far more than anything government can do alone and todays announcement represents an important step forward to providing Americans with healthier choices so that they can choose to lead healthier lives, said First Lady Michelle Obama, who also serves as honorary chair of the Partnership. This is precisely the kind of private sector commitment we need. I want to thank the Healthy Weight Commitment Foundation for stepping up to the plate and I hope this encourages others to do the same.

Under the terms of the agreement, the Healthy Weight Commitment Foundation (HWCF) will report annually to the Partnership on the progress they are making toward this pledge. The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation (RWJF) also will support a rigorous, independent evaluation of how the Healthy Weight Commitment Foundations efforts to reduce calories in the marketplace affect calories consumed by children and adolescents. RWJF will publicly report its findings.

"Americas food and beverage companies have a strong track record of innovation and providing consumers with healthier products," said Lisa Gable, executive director of the Healthy Weight Commitment Foundation. "With this initiative they are moving farther and faster. The Foundations member companies are giving Americans tools to reduce calorie consumption."