Lantmännen Unibake reduces salt levels in bread products to qualify for Heart Symbols in Finland

In Finland, the Finnish Heart Association launched the Heart Symbol to make it easier for consumers to tell the difference between regular food products and food products with better nutritional values regarding fibre, salt, sugar and fat (quantity and quality).

Aiming to acquire the Heart Symbol for two existing bread products, Lantmännen Unibake FIBAL Frozen in Finland recently decided to reduce the salt level in two existing products. One of the products is Vaasan Ruismax, a round sandwich bread baked with sourdough and lots of wholegrain rye and fibre. The other product, Vaasan Alppileipä, is a long-time Finnish favorite bread loaf made from wheat.

“The existing recipe for Vaasan Ruismax was already high in fibre with 8,7 grams per 100 grams. To boast the Heart Symbol a bread product must have a minimum of 6,0 grams fibre per 100 grams, so we didn’t need to adjust that level. But the salt level in the product was reduced from 1,0 grams per 100 grams to 0,9 grams per 100 grams to match the criteria,” says Mari Korhonen, Senior Category Manager at Lantmännen Unibake FIBAL Frozen.

“For Vaasan Alppileipä the salt level in the old recipe was 1,0 grams per 100 grams, and we changed that to 0,9 gram per 100 grams, so it was only a minimal change, whereas the old recipe for Vaasan Alppileipä had 5,3 grams of fibre per 100 grams, and the new recipe now has 6,0 grams of fibre per 100 grams. We sell the product in In-store bakeries where the Heart Symbol is communicated on a printed paper bag. The paper bags are delivered with the sales unit.”

Supporting a health & nutrition trend

Introduced in 2000, the Heart Symbol has guided Finnish consumers to choose healthier food alternatives through more than 20 years.

“People in Finland are used to eating rye bread and bread with a lot of oats and different kinds of wholegrains. The trend is that there is a market for products with an even higher amount of fibre and wholegrains and less fat and salt. In Lantmännen Unibake, we want to support this positive health & nutrition agenda by delivering high-quality products to B2B and B2C customers alike,” Mari Korhonen says.

Lantmännen Unibake FIBAL Frozen has roughly 20 items on the market labeled with the Heart Symbol. The newest member of the family is the Vaasan Graham Roll launched in September 2024 which contains more than 20% wholegrain wheat. The Vaasan Graham Roll is perfect for the bread buffet at lunch, as a roll for soup days, or as a filled roll for the coffee breaks.

Consumers are aware of health risks 
Lantmännen Unibake has defined several goals on how to support a global transition towards eating healthier food. This ambition is backed up by consumers showing a high interest in Health & Nutrition as a topic.

In November 2022, Lantmännen Unibake launched a Consumer Tracker across nine key markets to gather consumer insights on Health & Nutrition. The questions focused on the overall importance for consumption; awareness of the health benefits of fibre, salt, and wholegrains; triggers and barriers for choosing wholegrain products etc.

Overall, consumers are highly concerned with the health impact of their daily diets. Some of the key takeaways from the survey were:

• High consumer awareness on health risks* connected to high intake of salt (68-78%)
• Despite the awareness, almost 30% say they have increased their salt intake over the last year. The same number of respondents claim to have reduced their salt intake
• Almost every second, 46% of consumers actively seek to reduce their salt intake. The main barrier for doing so is taste – no one wants to compromise on taste

* High blood pressure, coronary heart disease, stokes