Despite pockets of positivity, the latest industry benchmarking reports lay bare a continued lack of progress in building a more resilient food system. By Nick Hughes.
In December 2023, Footprint published an article titled ‘Time running out to transform food system’. It followed the publication of several key reports which showed industry efforts to address critical issues such as greenhouse gas emissions, water security and food waste were not progressing anywhere near quickly enough.
Across almost all indicators the raw data made for sober reading, yet in conclusion I wrote that it was important not to lose hope, and signed off with the observation: “There are reasons to believe that the food system can be transformed in a way that respects planetary boundaries and supports healthy lifestyles.”
Fast-forward two years and that optimism is starting to feel misplaced, a touch naïve even, after the latest tranche of benchmarking reports dropped earlier this month. The Food Foundation’s annual ‘State of the nation’s food industry’ report delivered some blunt conclusions as it found slow progress on transparent reporting and target setting across a range of health and environmental metrics – with foodservice and hospitality sector businesses most conspicuously behind the curve.
None of the 16 out of home businesses assessed has a sales-based target for increasing sales of healthy food; disclosure of scope 3 emissions data remains patchy; average meals are too calorific and lacking in healthy, sustainable ingredients like pulses; and advertising spend is still largely being directed towards unhealthy products.
The report did contain some pockets of positivity. Targets to increase sales of plant protein and/or fruit and vegetables are becoming more common across the out of home sector. Compass Group UK&I won praise for being one of only two businesses, alongside Lidl, to have a target to shift from animal to plant protein. JD Wetherspoon’s move to set targets and disclose data on the proportion of menus that have vegan and vegetarian options was described as very positive, while Wagamama has maintained a 50% plant based menu since 2021. Bidfood is considered “the clear leader in the wholesale sector and the only wholesaler transparently reporting on sales”.
Yet the fact these piecemeal improvements merited specific mention in the eyes of The Food Foundation served only to emphasise the out of home sector’s faltering progress overall. The results show “we cannot continue to leave progress on healthy and sustainable sales to the market”, warned the charity. “Healthy and sustainable food remains unavailable and unaffordable for far too many,” it concluded amid “a striking lack of commercial incentives for businesses to produce and sell us good food”.
Policy makers also came under fire for a lack of urgency. “Time and time again voluntary action has been shown to be ineffective, with only the most ambitious businesses supporting a shift towards healthier and more sustainable diets in the absence of a level playing field. Meanwhile mandated policies intended to tackle the challenges facing our food system have often been unambitious, stuck in a cycle of weak and repetitive design with initial policy proposals often watered down through rounds of industry consultation and lobbying.”
There was no need to read between the lines to conclude that the food systems transformation spoken of so earnestly (albeit in broad-brush terms) in conference rooms and corporate reports continues to crumble on contact with reality.
Stark reality
Those hoping to find solace in WWF’s latest update on supermarkets’ environmental action via its ‘What’s in store for the planet report 2025’ were in for further disappointment. Progress in reducing environmental risks is “stagnating” warned the charity, threatening future commercial viability. Targets for removing deforestation and conversion from supply chains, including soy and cocoa, are almost certain to be missed. Retailers are also miles off hitting scope 3 emissions reduction targets, in part because they are not properly tackling protein diversification and still selling twice the target proportion of meat compatible with a healthy and sustainable diet.
WWF chair Dave Lewis pulled no punches in his foreword to this year’s report. “The reality is stark: tipping points are being surpassed that could push entire ecosystems to collapse, extreme weather events are becoming the norm, and wildlife populations are declining at an alarming rate,” wrote the former Tesco CEO. “These shocks are already disrupting food supply chains and hitting businesses hard. If we want resilient supply chains we need to tackle these threats, not bury our heads in the sand.”
Resilience has emerged as a watchword for the food industry in 2025 as the impacts of climate change start to hit businesses where it hurts. Extreme weather events continue to impact global crop yields for key commodities like cocoa and coffee, while UK farmers have suffered the second worst harvest on record with arable farmers alone facing an £828m reduction in revenues, according to the Energy and Climate Intelligence Unit. As a consequence, buyers are either having to stomach huge price spikes, seek alternative sources of supply (assuming they exist) or try to substitute in alternative ingredients.
Environmental dependency
Lewis followed up his WWF warning with an article in the FT in which he described how he came to realise “Tesco’s success was deeply dependent not just on our customers, staff and supply chains, but on the environment”. Yet a full five years after he left Tesco, Lewis’ epiphany does not seem to have been experienced by his peers – or if it has then the barriers to action are still proving insurmountable. “While we are seeing more environmental innovation and pilot initiatives, they are not being scaled or embedded into common business practice,” Lewis wrote. “The kind of change we need to make the food system more reliable and resilient is just not there, either from companies or the government, at a time when we need it the most.”
The same warning was sounded loudly in April by a group of anonymous food industry whistle-blowers working in sustainability, who suggested corporate risks are still not being treated as critical to strategy, and sustainability is still largely viewed through a compliance lens.
Wrap sees it too. The organisation responsible for driving voluntary action on climate, water and waste is generally one of the more taciturn NGOs working on food, but wrote in response to Lewis’s article: “Working with businesses, we see that even with floods and droughts disrupting supply chains it’s still difficult for conversations about long term resilience to carry the same weight as short term profitability in boardrooms. The business case is still not compelling enough.”
Which rather begs the question, what will make it compelling enough? “If we can no longer grow food, what will their companies sell?” asked Lewis provocatively.
Sense of urgency
The former Unilever and Tesco man is about to re-enter the food industry as CEO of drinks giant Diageo. It can only be hoped he continues to sound the alarm in such a forceful way once he gets his feet back under the corporate table, because for those holding senior roles within food and drink businesses the tendency is still towards equivocation in public fora.
Even during The Food Foundation’s own panel session to discuss the launch of its report, featuring representatives from Tesco, Bidfood and Samworth Brothers, this habit was on show as the conversation was dominated by talk of a “complicated landscape”, the need for “certainty” in policy, “buy-in” from leadership teams and “a level playing field” for businesses. All valid points no doubt – but the only panellist to really capture the urgency of the challenge facing the food system was Rachel Crossley from the investment firm BNP Paribas Asset Management, when she noted how “report after report” […..] says the costs and impacts of the current food system massively outweigh the value that it’s generating”. Long-term systemic risks like climate change, nature loss, inequality and anti-microbial resistance, are collectively “the biggest impediment to us being able to deliver long-term returns to savers and investors and our clients”, said Crossley, before adding that “the goal should be to tackle and ameliorate these long term, sustained risks”.
The latest round of reporting shows that simply isn’t happening at the pace or scale required. It’s never desirable to end a year on a negative note, but two years on from Footprint’s expression of belief that the food industry can be transformed, that transformation looks further away than ever.
For all the earnestness of their sustainability efforts – and there is a patchwork of positive endeavour in progress throughout the UK and beyond – businesses, as Lewis wrote, need to start acknowledging the immediacy of climate and nature risks and reporting candidly on progress, impact and barriers. “As we enter a new era of disruption, [businesses] need to go beyond signing off targets and allocate resources to support delivery at scale.”
His words should be ringing in the ears of business leaders as 2026 hoves into view.
