Independent report

SACN statement on expressing fat and carbohydrate recommendations

Scientific Advisory Committee on Nutrition position statement on the terms to use to express energy intakes and recommendations for fats and carbohydrates.

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This Scientific Advisory Committee on Nutrition (SACN) position statement clarifies and updates the terms to use for expressing:

  • energy intakes
  • dietary reference values for fats and carbohydrates

It also makes recommendations for reporting and monitoring intakes of energy, fats and carbohydrates.

This updates the previous SACN statement on expressing energy, fat and carbohydrate intakes and recommendations. The previous statement clarified and updated terminology for expressing energy intakes and recommendations for total and saturated fats, total carbohydrates and free sugars. This statement includes updated terminology for expressing recommendations for unsaturated fats.

The updated terminology should be used in any future publication or website when referring to energy intakes or UK recommendations for average dietary intakes of fats and carbohydrates relative to energy intakes. This includes reporting and monitoring of intakes.

Updates to this page

Published 12 June 2025
Last updated 31 December 2025 show all updates
  1. Updated to include terminology for expressing recommendations for unsaturated fats.

  2. First published.

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