Five-year study points to healthy, sustainable UK diets

Healthier school meals, greener hospitals and more affordable food are among a number of actions proposed by researchers to make the UK’s food system fairer, healthier and more sustainable.

The recommendations are the result of Transforming UK Food Systems (TUKFS), a £47.5 million, five-year project involving Global Agriculture and Food Systems expertise.

The project brought together academics, businesses, policymakers, charities and communities to tackle the health, environmental and economic impacts of the way the UK produces, sells and eats food.

Its findings could offer timely evidence and recommendations as the Government's food strategy develops.

Among the 27 proposed actions are healthier school breakfasts, voucher schemes to make food more affordable, and steps to cut the carbon footprint of meals.

Children are found to accept higher-fibre bread when included in school breakfasts, offering a route to addressing the relative lack of fibre in schoolchildren’s diets.

Making healthy food more affordable could be possible by expanding voucher schemes for low-income households to improve access to nutritious, sustainable options, the research team finds.

Clearer food labelling, combining nutritional and environmental information at a glance, could enable consumers to identify healthier options.

The results could feed into policy guidance, creating legislation to direct potential food waste to disadvantaged groups by default.

Switching menu choices at NHS hospitals could cut meal emissions by nearly 20 per cent and saturated fat by almost 16 per cent without changing recipes, according to the research, funded by UK Research and Innovation (UKRI).

The findings may help address challenges in the UK food system, which is linked to rising diet-related disease, economic challenges, and environmental damage including climate change, biodiversity loss and soil degradation. 

Researchers argue that practical, coordinated action is needed to make food systems healthier, more resilient and more equitable.

The TUKFS programme supports 16 long-term projects involving more than 40 universities and 200 partner organisations across the private, public and voluntary sectors. 

It also funds a Centre for Doctoral Training with 56 students, and synthesis work that underpins the 27 action areas.

Researchers emphasise the importance of co-producing solutions with food system organisations and citizens, alongside stronger governance and policy support at national and regional levels.

The full set of recommendations is published in a dedicated issue of Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B.

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