THE Atkins revolution is not just about waistlines — it is also about bottom lines. With about three million people experimenting with the diet, the UK food industry has been forced to act to feed the demand and exploit the obvious business opportunity.

Products, marketing strategies and even packaging have been influenced by the advent of Atkins. High street stores, including Boots, Asda and Superdrug, now stock Atkins branded products, while smaller players like Benjys, the sandwich retailer, have introduced their own-brand low-carbohydrate offerings. Earlier this month Nestlé Rowntree launched “low carbohydrate” versions of two of its biggest selling sweets, Kit Kat and Rolo.

The UK’s hotels have not been immune. The Bentley, in West London, is marketing its restaurant, 1880, as an “Atkins friendly” zone with a guarantee from the executive chef, Andrew Turner, that customers will have a “98 per cent carbohydrate-free meal”.

The “Atkins effect” has extended well beyond new product offerings. Tesco, the UK’s biggest supermarket, is poised to introduce a new labelling system clearly indicating carbohydrate and protein content for the time-pushed Atkins devotee.

But is it just a fad? The experts think not.

“Not least because of the Government’s drive to get people to watch what they eat, Atkins is here to stay, ” says Amanda Afiya, the chef’s editor at Caterer & Hotelkeeper magazine.

Camilla Palmer, the author of a recent report into dieting by Datamonitor, the research group, agrees: “In five to ten years’ time there will be as many low-carbohydrate products as low-fat ones on the shelves.” Retailers ignore this trend at their peril, she says. In the US, 6,000 job cuts at Kraft Foods Inc were linked to its failure to pick up on the trend. And Unilever has blamed poor sales of its Slim-Fast diet drinks on Atkins.

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