Theme

Issue

Recommendation

Political failure

• Between 1992 and 2020, successive governments proposed nearly 700 wide-ranging policies to tackle obesity in England, but obesity rates have continued to rise. (House of Lords report)
• Any political attempt to influence how people eat is attacked by libertarians in Westminster and the media as interfering, joyless and ‘nanny statist’. The attacks are ferocious enough to generate considerable political anxiety. (Nourishing Britian report)
• Food-related disease has never made it to the top of the political agenda. (Nourishing Britian report)

Develop a Policy based on four essential elements:

1. Deploy a compelling argument - combine an abundance of evidence with careful framing, and use existing or well-researched policy ideas to make an irrefutable case.
2. Build a movement -the public doesn’t need much persuading: it already wants strong government action on the food industry, and help to access healthy food.
3. Enlist the prime minister - food-related ill health should be a prime ministerial priority. (At a local level, the same is true of regional mayors.)
4. Be bold, act fast, no regrets - changing policy is hard, particularly on food-related matters. But if you move fast and aim high you can leave a clear legacy (Nourishing Britian report)

Power of food businesses (both supermarkets and manufacturers)

• Government faces a conflict of interest in its relationship with industry, oscillating between champion and regulator. Most politicians recognise that the rise of food-related ill health has been commercially driven. But they often feel unable to legislate, because of industry lobbying and fears about the impact on businesses and the wider economy. (Nourishing Britian report)
• Major players across the food system, especially supermarkets have lots of access to Government Ministers (Food Foundation report).
• Just four (11%) businesses (all of which are retailers) have a sales-based target and disclose data for fruit and veg (Food Foundation report).
• The food industry has strong incentives to produce and sell highly profitable unhealthy products (House of Lords report)
• (14%) of the lowest priced fruit and veg products across the seven major retailers contains added salt and/or sugar (Food Foundation report).. 

• Introduce a salt and sugar reformulation tax on food manufacturers. The Government should consider how to use the revenue to make healthier food cheaper, particularly for people living with food insecurity (House of Lords report).
• Voluntary efforts to promote healthier food have failed. Mandatory regulation has to be introduced House of Lords report).

Food insecurity

• Almost a fifth of children live in food insecure households (House of Lords report)
• Per calorie, healthy foods are more than twice as expensive as unhealthy foods (Nourishing Britian report)

Even where there is multibuy deals or price promotions to ease the burden on struggling families, too many are for high fat salt sugar (HFSS) food and drink e.g.

• (27%) of multibuy deals are on, while just 4% of multibuy deals are on fruit and (Food Foundation report).

• 41% of offers are on HFSS foods and just 3% of promotions on fruit and veg (Food Foundation report)
• Almost one in five multibuy offers are on meat and dairy products, with half of these offers on processed meat (10.6%). Just 5% of deals are on fruit and veg (Food Foundation report).
• The Healthy Start scheme plays an important role in enabling pregnant women and families with babies and young children to access fruit, vegetables and milk. The value of payments has not kept up with soaring prices and too many families may be missing out (House of Lords report)

• Ban the advertising of less healthy food across all media by the end of this Parliament (House of Lords report)
• Enable auto-enrolment for Healthy Start and free school meals and review the costs and benefits to public health of increasing funding and widening eligibility for both schemes.

• Promote the Healthy Start Scheme: actions to support increased uptake could include; labelling foods included within the scope of Healthy Start with information about the scheme, running targeted instore and/or online communication campaigns to promote the scheme to low income customers, and exploring the potential to use loyalty card schemes to incentivise the use of funds on healthy foods (Food Foundation report).

School food

• In too many schools the free school meals allowance does not cover the cost of a nutritious meal (House of Lords report)[iii]
• About a third of children in poverty aren’t eligible for free school meals. (House of Lords report)[iv]
• Offer a healthy children’s lunchbox meal deal - retailers should look to offer lunchbox items that are compliant with School Food standards and make up five lunches that can be bought at affordable price point, for example through a multibuy deal. (Food Foundation report)

• Develop an ambitious strategy for maternal and infant nutrition and drive up compliance with the school food standards. This will help break the vicious cycle by which children living with obesity are five times more likely to become adults with obesity. (House of Lords report)[v]

Food systems complexity

• The food system is such a complex, multifaceted and sprawling issue. Multiple actions are required – with consequences that are not always predictable – and responsibility is spread across multiple government departments. (Nourishing Britain report)

• Give the Food Standards Agency (FSA) independent oversight of the food system House of Lords report).
• Work by Parsons (May 2020) ⁶  highlights that there are 16 different Government departments with some role in food policy.