The government has an “incoherent approach” to food policy with ministers not taking food security “anywhere near seriously enough”, according to MPs.
In a new report, the Environment, food and rural affairs (Efra) committee called on the Cabinet Office to undertake a comprehensive review of all aspects of food policy and publish its findings within 12 months.
They also demanded the government conducts a full impact assessment on the introduction of a tax on foods high in sugar, salt and fat. This needs to be submitted to the committee by early November.
The tax was among the recommendations in Henry Dimbleby’s independent national food strategy that were subsequently ignored by government. “While such a tax may cause consumer prices to rise, it may lead consumers to substitute cheaper healthier foods into their shopping basket,” the committee concluded.
The committee used its report to compare Dimbleby’s 2021 plan with the government’s own strategy, published last year. Dimbleby made the links between the types of food we eat and the health of the nation, but the government “did not cover the topic at all or set out any actions to break the junk food cycle”.
Dimbleby recently quit his role due to the lack of government intervention to tackle obesity. The government recently decided to delay its proposed ban on volume promotions of unhealthy food until October 2025, arguing that families would need access to these price reductions during the cost of living crisis. The government’s own evidence, however, has found that such promotions actually increase consumer spending by encouraging people to buy more than they intended to in the first place – around 20% more compared with the 16% they can expect to save over buying the same items at full price.
The Efra committee said promotions of relatively low-cost food which is high in calories but low in other nutrients – for example biscuits, burgers and other highly processed items – has led many poorer people in the UK to become obese. “This [junk food] cycle starts with the tendency for people to enjoy ‘tasty’ salty or sweet foods – a demand which is then satisfied by supermarkets and fast-food outlets.”
The report addresses the availability and affordability of food from the household to the national levels. It calls on the government to explore the options and affordability of extending the provision of free school meals.
The MPs heard how shocks to international trade such as the Russian invasion of Ukraine and Brexit had exposed some of the UK’s vulnerabilities. Only a little over a half (54%) of the food eaten in the UK is home-grown or home reared.
Efra chair Sir Robert Goodwill said: “Food security matters to us all. But surprisingly, the government does not appear to be taking this very basic matter anywhere near seriously enough.”
