27 November 2023
State of the Nation’s Food Industry report launched
Our second State of the Nation’s Food Industry report launches today!
It shines a light on the major retailers and Out of Home businesses within the UK and what steps, if any, they are taking to help us shift towards a more healthy and sustainable diet.
Acknowledging the important role these sectors play in shaping our food environments and eating habits, the report uses 10 metrics to assess which companies are leading the way, and importantly, what ethical businesses should be doing to help fix our broken food system.
Three key findings from the report are:
- No major UK food retail or food service business has a target for and discloses the % of sales coming from both animal and plant proteins, despite making pledges to reduce carbon emissions
- 62% of main meals offered by the major UK restaurants contain meat, whereas only 32% were meatless
- Just 1% of advertising spend goes towards fruit and vegetables and 0.8% on plant based dairy alternatives compared to 9% on meat and dairy products
Anna Taylor, Executive Director, The Food Foundation said: "Business transparency has stagnated, with fewer businesses disclosing sales weighted data on health and sustainability than last year.
"This negative trend is not being helped by the lack of leadership from government on food, and the fact there is still no agreed way of consistently measuring and reporting the nutrient content and carbon footprint of food.
"Government needs to build business confidence and signal its commitment to the healthy and sustainable diet agenda by making reporting of sales weighted data mandatory."
To mark the report's launch we're hosting a webinar on Thursday, November 30 between 10.30am and 11.15am and have lined up a panel of experts to delve into its key findings and analyse what has changed in the last 12 months.
Speakers include:
- Jenny Idle, Head of Food Purchasing at Wahaca
- Lisa-Marie Huggins, Food Service Sustainable Diets Manager at WWF UK
- Miranda Shelley, Health and Sustainable Diets Manager at Lidl
- Rebecca Tobi, The Food Foundation's Senior business and investor manager.
- The webinar will be chaired by Juliane Cailloutte-Noble, CEO of the Sustainable Restaurant Association
The webinar is free, but we advise registering (using the link below) as soon as possible to secure your place.
