Our reaction to House of Lords Food Diet and Obesity Committee report

The Food Foundation welcomes the findings of a House of Lords Food Food, Diet and Obesity Committee inquiry into the influence of 'Ultra-Processed foods' and those high in fat, sugar and salt on health outcomes.

Publication of the report comes after the committee considered months of oral and written evidence from a range of experts working within the food system and the new government offers the perfect opportunity to create lasting change in the food system to improve the health of our citizens and the planet.

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Food Foundation Executive Director Anna Taylor said: "This brilliant report rightly states that supporting people in Britain to eat well is the single most important priority for the prevention of ill health.

"Everything else dwarfs into insignificance when you look at the evidence. The Committee has done just what the government needs and set out a set of affordable and feasible recommendations.

"Their three big areas for action are first  a systematic regulatory crackdown on businesses which continue to relentlessly push low nutrient foods which are loaded with calories; second a raft of measures which government can introduce to support children to get the good nutrition they need to grow; and third the steps needed to ensure that good policies can be developed into the future, and progress can be monitored – including a new law which sets out our expectations of the food system to protect the nation’s health.

"All can be initiated in the next five years and I hope that the Prime Minister takes this list and makes it his personal priority."

The report's findings have also been welcomed by voices within the food industry and investor community. 

Stefan Descheemaeker, Chief Executive Officer of Nomad Foods, said: "We welcome today’s report, marking a major step forward in tackling public health and diet.

"We support measures requiring companies to report on the proportion of their sales that come from healthy products, which we have been doing for the last seven years.

"On tax, we believe this should be science-based in line with the UK Government’s Nutrient Profiling Model, that determines whether a product is healthy or less healthy based on its overall nutritional profile, rather than focusing on the specific levels of individual nutrients.

"This model would then help incentivise companies to reformulate to create healthier products. We’d also like to see mandatory front of pack labelling, that would help consumers to make more informed food choices."

Sophie Lawrence, Stewardship and Engagement Lead at Greenbank, said: "I strongly support the House of Lords Committee on Food, Diet and Obesity's recommendations, including the proposal to make large food businesses report on the healthiness of their sales and the need for an integrated food strategy within Government led at the highest level, measures that the Investor Coalition on Food Policy has been calling for since 2021.

"Diet-related ill health poses material financial risks for companies, investors and the wider economy.

"Investors need data on company health-related impacts and as the report concludes, it is vital that reporting is introduced on a mandatory basis to drive the necessary scale of change.

"Shifting commercial incentives through long-term, consistent policy intervention and a whole government approach also has the potential to create positive changes.

"I therefore support the recommendation to explore a sugar and salt reformulation tax."
 

Dominic Watters is a Food Ambassador for The Food Foundation and a single dad who gave evidence at The House of Lords Food, Diet and Obesity Committee and discussed some of the issues being faced by citizens across the UK

He said: "This could be the start of a paradigm shift in policy development. The Lords and Baronesses actually heard a council estate single dad speak to his lived experience of food insecurity. A victorious moment for unheard communities across the country - as demonstrated via the thousands of heart-felt comments on my TikTok.

"It's vital the voices of citizens are taken into account when shaping new policies and I hope this is what we will start to see happen now.

"The government must fix the Free School Meals system for the poor by introducing auto-enrolment for eligible children and increasing the free school meal threshold so that no child in poverty misses out on a nutritious lunch at school.

"They must also improve access to nutrition in the most deprived neighbourhoods – ending food deserts is a priority.

"The committee asked me 'how are things for people in your world?' and I pray my replies have helped to shape a more ‘one world’ approach to developing just and sustainable changes to our future food system."

The video on TikTok of Dominic giving evidence has been viewed 156,000 times, highlighting how the cost of living and struggle of citizens to be able to afford and have access to healthy food has affected so many.

@singledadsw Council estate single dad in the House of Lords?? #CostofLiving #PoorPeople #FoodInsecurity #foryoupage #fypシ゚viral ♬ original sound - @SingleDadSW

Our Food Ambassador Kathleen Kerridge also gave evidence to the committee and a similar video of her explaining how difficult it is to feed her family healthy food has been watched 148,000 times on YouTube.

• We're hosting a webinar at 11am tomorrow (October 25th) where our Executive Director Anna Taylor will discuss some of the key findings with Baroness Joan Walmsley, Chair of the House of Lords Food, Diet and Obesity Committee. Sign up by clicking on the link below.