Though this is an excerpt from a Soil Association report ‘Ultra Processed Foods – The case for re-balancing the UK diet’, the recommendations hold good for countries around the world.
Imagine a scenario where our diets and our food system have been transformed. We are producing food in nature-friendly farming systems, where soils, trees and grasslands soak up carbon, and provide habitats for wildlife.
A more diverse range of crops and animals is grown and eaten, and we’re producing more fruits, nuts, pulses and vegetables. Regional processing, marketing and distribution infrastructure allows fresh, delicious, wholesome food to be delivered efficiently to citizens, with less packaging, at prices that are fair to them and to producers. Children in schools are eating freshly prepared meals and food education is an integral part of the curriculum.
As a population, we are healthier and more connected to where our food comes from. Processed foods such as frozen vegetables and tinned fish are an important part of our diets, and we still enjoy the odd biscuit and plenty of baked beans, but through a ‘great rebalancing act’, ultra-processed foods are a much smaller part of our diets relative to fresh and natural foods.
1) Introduce a percentage reduction target for ultraprocessed foods
Re-balancing our diets means both eating more of the best foods and less of the worst. The UK Government should follow the French example and introduce a percentage reduction target for ultraprocessed foods, aiming to move the UK from ‘worst in class’ to among the ‘best in class’ within ten years.
Across nineteen European countries, the median proportion of ultra-processed foods in the diet is 33.9%, with Portugal (10.2%) and Italy (13.4%) at the bottom, and the UK at the top. The National Food Strategy should champion this ambition – aiming to align the UK diet with the European median within 5 years and further reduce consumption to 15% by 2030, to put us among the ‘best in class’.
2) Invest in world-leading food education for all children
It’s unacceptable that children are growing up detached from the joys of cooking and growing, not knowing where their food comes from. Although the National Curriculum says schools should be ‘instilling a love of cooking’ in pupils from a young age, many schools are failing to implement the practical cookery components of the curriculum.
Some families cannot afford the ingredients for these lessons, and some schools are lacking in equipment. The Government should be covering the cost of ingredients and should make sure that all schools have the equipment they need to teach practical cookery.
We know that food education can be transformative. The ‘whole school approach’ embodied in the Food for Life School Award has had a marked impact on diets and inequalities. Independent evaluation shows that pupils in Food for Life-engaged schools – where pupils are engaged with food, cooking and growing and visiting farms – are twice as likely to eat their five-a-day compared to children in matched comparison schools, and they eat a third more fruit and vegetables overall.
If every primary school in the country was a Food for Life school, a million more children would be eating their five-a-day. Among other school food initiatives, TastEd is reconnecting children with the sensory qualities of fresh and natural foods (TastEd, 2020).
A teacher will bring fresh vegetables or fruits into the classroom, and the children will talk and write about what they see, smell, touch, hear and taste and whether they enjoy it or not. This is food education pared down to its simplest form, but the impact on the way children relate to food can be huge. Increased uptake of Food for Life, Taste Ed and other school food initiatives, should be supported by the Government and championed by the National Food Strategy.
3) Harness public procurement to normalise healthy and sustainable diets
The UK Government spends over £2 billion each year procuring foods for schools, hospitals and other public settings. This spending power should be harnessed to normalise healthy and sustainable diets, based around fresh and natural foods, sourced from sustainable farming systems including organic.
As a first step, the School Fruit and Veg Scheme should be re-specified and extended. Under the scheme, all children aged 4-6 attending a state-funded school in England are entitled to receive a free piece of fruit or veg each school day. £40 million per annum is spent on the scheme, but only 40% of the produce is British. Research suggests that the produce supplied through the scheme can sometimes be of low quality, can be lacking in freshness, and that there is consequently a high level of waste. This is a missed opportunity.
Teachers attest to the nutritional importance of the scheme, but the scheme could serve a wider purpose, introducing children to delicious fresh produce, locally sourced where possible. Re-specifying the scheme so that a higher percentage of the produce is British, local and organic would not only support British production, but would ensure fresher and more appealing produce, delivered through shorter supply chains, which could lead to increased consumption and enjoyment by children.
4) Re-set the narrative around healthy eating and obesity
The Government estimate that the NHS currently spends £6bn per year on treatment of illnesses related to poor diet, which include obesity and related non-communicable diseases (Parliament UK, 2017). In addition, 40% of premature deaths could have been prevented through better diet and health (causes of death: cardiovascular disease, diabetes, cancer, COPD) (Parliament UK, 2017).
Public Health England’s analysis of COVID related data also highlighted that COVID had a more serious impact on those with obesity, with more people requiring intensive care treatment and dying from associated complications (Public Health England, 2020).
Even though ultra-processed foods were acknowledged as a ‘major vector of non-communicable diseases’ in 2017 (Parliament UK, 2017), the government’s obesity strategy (Department of Health & Social Care, 2020), remains focussed on calorie, fat and sugar reduction through voluntary reformulation targets.
Given the weight of evidence concerning ultra-processed foods and obesity, rebalancing the diet towards fresh and natural foods should be a priority – this will mean reframing public health narratives around healthy eating, and looking beyond reformulation.
Source: https://www.soilassociation.org/media/21669/ultra-processed-foods_soil-association-report.pdf
