Government Food Strategy recognizes that nutrition and sustainability are interrelated and need to be tackled together
The Government’s Food Strategy (for England), published on 13 June 2022, takes a long-term focus to ‘support a resilient, healthier and more sustainable food system that is affordable to all’, and is complementary to other recent government initiatives. The objectives for this Food Strategy are to deliver:
1. A prosperous agri-food and seafood sector that ensures a secure food supply in an unpredictable world and contributes to the levelling up agenda through good quality jobs around the country.
2. A sustainable, nature-positive, affordable food system that provides choice and access to high quality products that support healthier and home-grown diets for all.
3. Trade that provides export opportunities and consumer choice through imports, without compromising our regulatory standards for food, whether produced domestically or imported.
It also emphasises the importance of collaboration across government and with the devolved administrations, the agri-food sector and civil society; and summarises how the government is supporting children and families on low incomes to learn and eat healthily through various initiatives such as healthy start, free school meals, breakfast clubs and the Holiday Activities and Food Programme (HAF).
The 33 page report (Government food strategy (publishing.service.gov.uk) comprises three main chapters, that focus on:
· Food security and sustainable production
· Healthier and sustainable eating
· The UK as part of a global food system.
The Academy of Nutrition Sciences is pleased to see recognition in the White Paper that nutrition and sustainability are interrelated and neither should be tackled in isolation, and that attention is to be given to mitigating the environmental impact of conventional protein sources as well as innovation of plant-derived sources. Also particularly welcomed are: the announcement about the Food Data Transparency Partnership to support collation of robust and transparent data; the funding of research to identify evidence based interventions to encourage and enable healthier and more sustainable diets; and the focus on schools.
The Academy plans to respond to formal consultation in due course. In the meantime, aspects that are particularly noteworthy from a nutrition/health perspective are listed below. We look forward to more details over the coming months.
Healthier and sustainable eating
· Health targets: Halving childhood obesity by 2030, decreasing the Healthy Life Expectancy gap by 2030 and adding 5 years to Healthy Life Expectancy by 2035, decreasing the prevalence of diet-related illness and, to support this, increasing the proportion of healthier food sold
· Schools: An ambition of sparking a school food revolution, embedded in a whole school approach to food that focuses on all aspects as well as the curriculum (building on the Levelling Up White Paper, which announced introduction of a suite of measures to improve school food and build a strong food curriculum, including the £5 million school cooking revolution pilot and a new pilot for local authorities to assure school compliance with school food standards).
· Funding for interventions: A programme of randomised controlled trials to develop a suite of evidence based and value for money interventions to encourage and enable healthier and more sustainable diets. Findings will be used to channel resources towards the most effective interventions for largescale and long-term policies to shift diets
· Robust & transparent data: Recognition that nutrition and sustainability are interrelated and neither should be tackled in isolation. In this context, a Food Data Transparency Partnership is to be established to: develop a robust framework for tackling some of the fundamental questions for our food system, increasing transparency and responsibility; and to provide consumers with the information they need to make more sustainable, ethical and healthier food choices, and to incentivise industry to play its part. The Partnership will bring together government, the Devolved Administrations, representatives across the food chain and civil society, to develop consistent and defined metrics to objectively measure health, environmental sustainability and animal welfare. Flowing from this, consumer information will be optimized and based on a set of overarching principles defined by government. This will include mandatory methodology for eco-labels, labelling information on nutrition building on learnings from current front-of-pack labelling, and consideration of improvements to current animal welfare and country of origin labelling. The White Paper states that the work of the Partnership with be joined with existing work across government on healthy food choices, so that government can speak with one voice to industry on these matters. More detail on cross-government working is promised in the future Health Disparities White Paper from the Department of Health and Social Care.
· Public sector food: A consultation is to take place on public sector food and catering policy, with the potential that its scope is made mandatory across the whole public sector, including schools. And that more emphasis is placed on local sourcing and the environment, potentially introducing an aspirational target that at least 50% of food spend must be on food produced locally or certified to higher environmental production standards.
· More research needed: Henry Dimbleby’s 2021 report referred to so-called ‘ultra-processed foods’ in relation to obesity trends. In its White Paper, government comments that more research is still required to determine the exact role of ultra-processed foods in this context.
Food security and sustainable production
This chapter focusses on the government’s strategy to reduce Greenhouse Gas (GHG) emissions and the environmental impacts of the food system, in line with the Government’s Net Zero commitments and biodiversity targets and to prepare for the risks from a changing climate. Points of note include:
· A land use framework will be published in 2023
· Steps to increase self sufficiency in horticulture and seafood. As recommended by Henry Dimbleby, a ‘what works centre’ is being established to share best practice across the industry and to improve the quality of advice on the practical implications for agriculture of goals such as net zero. This will be complemented by the new Institute for Agriculture and Horticulture (TIAH), due to launch this summer, which will help farmers and growers to access the right skills to run professional, sustainable and profitable businesses.
· Support for research and innovation in alternative protein sources
· The White Paper states that sustainable sources of protein do not have to be new or novel or displace traditional sectors. Also that regenerative farming will provide a more sustainable production of traditional protein sources; using livestock to benefit the environment in balance with food production is already being championed by many small-scale farmers. The Farming Futures research and development (R&D) Fund will help the livestock and protein sectors embrace ‘climate-smart farming’ and innovative technologies. To support this, there will be a Call for Evidence to better understand the challenges associated with the use of feed additives and materials that can reduce methane emissions from livestock.
· Support for farmers, e.g. to invest in new equipment where there is scope to boost productivity and to help farmers to identify and develop low carbon farming practices and carbon storage opportunities.
· Ongoing work to reduce food waste and mitigate barriers and bureaucracy associated with legislation post-Brexit.
The UK as part of a global food system
This chapter focuses on strengthening global food security and maximising the benefits of new trade agreements post-Brexit; harnessing export opportunities and supporting our agri-food industry; maintaining our world-leading food and animal welfare standards; and championing a nature-positive global food system.