“One model to rule them all!” You’ll have to forgive this week’s Digest for channelling our inner Tolkien, such is our excitement at news that researchers have been awarded funding to create a model to categorise foods based on both their nutritional content and environmental impact.
The development of a nutrient and environment profiling model, to give it its full and less dramatic title, is one of the key outcomes from the newly launched Thriving Food Futures project. Publicly funded via UK Research and Innovation and the National Institute for Health Research, the project is designed to accelerate the UK’s transition to net-zero and tackle diet-related ill health by designing and evaluating new policies that support healthy, sustainable diets.
We’ve long had evidence of a strong crossover between a nutritious diet and one that has a low environmental impact (see the various iterations of WWF’s Livewell diet for starters) but official government advice via the Eatwell Guide still lacks a core sustainability element. The project is not tasked with rewriting the Eatwell Guide, but its model is intended to influence policy decisions by identifying which foods are both unhealthy and unsustainable (and vice versa).
The overall scope of the work extends well beyond that. The project team is formed of a consortium of researchers from the universities of Oxford, Cambridge, Strathclyde, Warwick, Queen Mary University London and City St George’s University London. As part of its work the team will conduct a comprehensive review of international food policies and, with input from policymakers and industry experts, develop a range of options that could support healthier, more sustainable diets.
Interventions will be tested with citizen juries from across the UK to help researchers gauge which of the proposed policies are most acceptable to the public. The team will also create novel digital tools, such as smartphone apps, to simulate real-world shopping environments, allowing for large-scale testing of the proposed policies without relying on industry partnerships.
“The Thriving Food Futures research hub is a great opportunity to reshape the UK’s food system in a way that benefits both our health and the environment,” said project lead Peter Scarborough from the University of Oxford. “By working closely with policymakers and the public, we will create evidence-based solutions that are not only effective but also widely accepted and viable.”
It remains to be seen whether a ‘master’ food label, covering both health and the environment, could follow the development of the model. Nutritional labelling is well established in UK retail – far more so than eco-labelling – as is the case in continental Europe where the Nutri-score label has come to dominate the market. Use of Nutri-score remains voluntary for businesses and is set to remain so according to a report this week from FoodNavigator Europe. The European Commission failed to confirm support for a proposal to mandate the use of Nutri-score during what the online publication described as “an uncomfortable press conference”. Although the scheme enjoys support across major markets such as France, Germany and Spain, some EU member states have opted out of using it.
The Commission had previously committed to a mandatory EU-wide harmonised front-of-pack nutrition labelling scheme as part of its ‘Farm to Fork’ strategy. Last month, it published its ‘Vision for Agriculture and Food’, which succeeded the Farm to Fork strategy and has faced criticism from campaigners for a lack of ambition in supporting dietary change and establishing new environmental measures and targets.
Elsewhere in Footprint news this week:
- The Food Standards Agency has published fresh guidance for businesses providing allergen information outside the home (view here)
- A new project is asking for the public’s views on ultra-processed foods (view here)
- Restaurants demand equal rights for delivery drivers in the government’s Crime & Policing Bill (view here)
