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The UK government’s 2022 food strategy a year later

Nature Food volume 4, pages 824–825 (2023)Cite this article

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Minister Mark Spencer announced in May 2023 a reversing of the decision to develop a strategy for horticulture. Instead, the government says it now wants to focus on a labour review and a farming innovation programme. Dimbleby’s independent review in 2021 (ref. 6) had set out how UK diets will need to change over the next ten years to meet the government’s targets on health, climate and nature. By 2032, fruit and vegetable consumption will have to increase by 30% and fibre consumption by 50%. This U-turn clearly ignores this need.

The GFS promised a Health Disparities White Paper (HDWP). However, the HDWP was shelved in January 2023. Instead, Health Secretary Steve Barclay announced a Major Conditions Strategy (MCS). There is no date set for the publication of the MCS, which is focused on how best to manage dietary-related health conditions. Crucially, there has been no mention of health disparities. This has been widely criticized by the health professions7.

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References

  1. Doherty, B., Jackson, P., Poppy, G. M., Wagstaff, C. & White, M. Nat. Food 3, 481–482 (2022).

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  7. Government’s scrapping of the Health Disparities White Paper “appalling”, says BMA. BMA https://go.nature.com/3Pe7dv0 (2023).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. School for Business and Society, University of York, York, UK

    Bob Doherty

  2. Institute for Sustainable Food, University of Sheffield, Sheffield, UK

    Peter Jackson

  3. Department of Food and Nutritional Sciences, University of Reading, Reading, UK

    Carol Wagstaff & Tracey Duncombe

  4. MRC Epidemiology Unit, School of Clinical Medicine, University of Cambridge, Cambridge, UK

    Martin White

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  1. Bob Doherty
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  2. Peter Jackson
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  3. Carol Wagstaff
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  4. Martin White
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  5. Tracey Duncombe
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Correspondence to Bob Doherty.

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The authors declare no competing interests.

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Doherty, B., Jackson, P., Wagstaff, C. et al. The UK government’s 2022 food strategy a year later. Nat Food 4, 824–825 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1038/s43016-023-00859-x

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