Lack of rules and responsibility leading to unhealthy food choices – Food Foundation
The analysis of data from multiple sources show a food system that is pushing citizens towards making unhealthy food choices, and displaying a lack of accountability in the food industry.
These are the stark findings from the annual report published by The Food Foundation.
According to the Foundation, the picture of the food system shows that currently the food environment, “from the food being advertised to us, to the food that dominates menus when we eat out, to the price promotions” being offered in supermarkets, is “relentlessly pushing” consumers to make unhealthy choices.
The report also shows there is a “clear lack of accountability”, with food industry giants failing to set targets or report on their company’s health credentials.
The Foundation went to describe Mondelez, Mars and Coca-Cola as having “no clear explicit board-level accountability” for nutrition.
The new Government has committed to raise the healthiest generation of children ever, to halve the gap in healthy life expectancy and to strengthen the economy. The Foundation argues that there is increasing public awareness that this cannot be done without addressing diets and the availability and affordability of healthy food.
Currently obesity and overweight are estimated to contribute to around 40,000 deaths every year and cost the UK economy an estimated £98bn annually. Last month a report from the House of Lords Commitee on Food, Diet and Obesity forcefully called for the government to fix our broken food system and turn the tide on the public health emergency.
The Food Foundation’s annual report includes data from its Plating Up Progress benchmark which monitors 36 major UK food businesses, covering retailers, the out of home sector, wholesalers and manufacturers. The benchmarks looks at which of these businesses are disclosing transparent data on sales, marketing and sourcing and setting targets to support the sales of more healthy and sustainable food.
The Food Foundation found that while the majority of major food businesses have now set targets for and are reporting on reducing Scope 3 emissions, only 1 in 4 major UK food businesses has a healthy sales target and discloses data on the healthiness of their sales.
While there has been more target setting and disclosure on climate than health, there is still an intention-action gap on environment goals, with over half of businesses assessed either not reporting on progress or seeing emissions rise.
The Food Foundation is calling on the government to introduce mandatory reporting by all large food businesses on both the healthiness and sustainability of their sales. This is crucial for identifying what food is being sold (and ultimately consumed) and pointing to areas for improvement. Setting targets is equally important, serving as a North Star for driving meaningful change within companies.
A great deal of progress had been made in aligning on the health metrics for food businesses to report on via the Food Data Transparency Partnership (FDTP) during the last term of government, but this has come to a complete standstill since the election. Labour ought to use the existing mechanisms for health reporting and move swiftly to place it on a mandatory footing.
Rebecca Tobi, senior business and investor engagement manager, The Food Foundation, stressed that this year’s State of the Nation’s Food Industry report demonstrates the “huge impact food businesses have in shaping the food we eat – and how the current system is setting us up to fail”.
“It’s not right that the most affordable, appealing and convenient options are often the unhealthiest ones,” Tobi added. “We urgently need the government to introduce regulation to raise standards and create a level playing field that enables progressive businesses to go further, faster. If we are to have any chance of ensuring the next generation are the healthiest ever – as Labour have pledged – then we simply can’t continue to ignore the major role large food companies are playing in shaping UK diets. We need regulation to ensure proper safeguards are in place to make sure businesses act responsibly, supporting people and planet as well as profit.”
Baroness Walmsley, chair of the House of Lords Food Diet and Obesity Committee said industry needs to move further to support everyone to eat well, and the calls to action repeat many of those in the Lords committee’s report (Recipe for Health; a Plan to fix our broken food system).
“The government should act now to develop a long term strategy to fix our food system, underpinned by a new legislative framework. Without it, businesses have insufficient incentive to act in the public interest and will continue to cause harm with their relentless promotion of junk food,” she added.
