Leading health organisations back our campaign with an open letter
The Soil Association and leading food and health organisations have written an open letter to Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, Wes Streeting, demanding urgent action to make healthy, minimally processed foods more accessible and affordable.
Signatories include the Obesity Health Alliance, which represents sixty leading health bodies, the British Dietetics Association, and the Association of Directors of Public Health.
The signatories are urging the Government to act with haste to make healthier, largely unprocessed and minimally processed foods more accessible and affordable to the British population, as recommended by the House of Lords Committee on Diet, Health and Obesity.
The letter has been sent alongside the launch of our Tell The Whole Truth campaign, which has exposed how industry lobbyists, representing the UK's biggest UPF companies, successfully demanded revisions to Government guidance for retailers which would have seen them encouraged to promote whole and minimally-processed foods. And yet, there is overwhelming scientific evidence that minimally processed and whole foods are crucial for a healthy diet. Please sign our petition.
People want greater access to affordable and nutritious whole and minimally processed food.
British citizens are concerned about the potential harms of ultra-processed foods and eager for a government response. We recognise that the science is complex, and further research will surely help illuminate how ultra-processed diets influence diverse health outcomes. But as the Lords Committee has stated: “The need for further research into ultra-processed foods must not be an excuse for inaction.”
The signatories of the open letter urge the Government to harness the upcoming cross-departmental Food Strategy to ensure everyone, especially infants and children, and those from vulnerable and marginalised communities, can enjoy a diet based on more whole and minimally processed food.
Katharine Jenner, Director, Obesity Health Alliance, is one of more than 20 signatories on the Soil Association’s open letter. She said: “While public trust in the food industry is incredibly low, for decades governments have placed baseless faith in it, allowing companies that profit from highly processed, high fat, salt, and sugar products to interfere with policies designed to curb their harmful impact. Sadly, these companies are following the ‘tobacco playbook’, a strategy designed to protect profits at the expense of public health. They deny and undermine the evidence, dilute policies with loopholes and exemptions, and delay action for as long as possible."
There are numerous policy options already on the table which could begin to shift the balance of Britain’s diet.
- Increasing support for breastfeeding women
- Expanding the Healthy Start scheme
- Expanding eligibility for Free School Meals
- Procuring fresh produce from farms that deliver measurable benefits to climate and nature
- Devising a horticulture strategy
- Ending unhealthy advertising across all media
- Introducing new fiscal measures informed by the Soft Drinks Industry Levy, this can begin to support increased consumption of healthy, minimally processed produce, such as fruits, vegetables, pulses and wholegrains.