MRC Epidemiology Unit
Today the House of Lords Food Diet and Obesity Committee published the report ‘Recipe for Health: a plan to fix our broken food system’.
The MRC Epidemiology Unit provided expertise to inform the Committee’s work. Professor Martin White, who co-leads our Population Health Interventions programme, acted as a Specialist Advisor to the Committee, and Unit researchers also submitted written evidence to the Committee during the preparation of the report.
In their report, the House of Lords Committee notes that there is no silver bullet to end the UK’s public health emergency of obesity and diet-related disease, but makes a series of recommendations to develop a new comprehensive food strategy.
The Unit’s evidence contributed to several key areas of the report, including.
Past failures of Government Policy
In their report the Committee start by noting that “the policy of successive governments had fundamentally failed to tackle the obesity emergency”, citing a paper published in 2021 by Unit researchers Dr Dolly Theis and Professor Martin White which found that 689 obesity policies published in England between 1992 and 2020 had largely failed because of problems with implementation, lack of learning from past successes or failures, and a reliance on trying to persuade individuals to change their behaviour rather than tackling unhealthy environments.
Understanding the role of industry
The report highlights the key role played by the food industry in the development of proposals for regulation, and examples cited include an analysis of industry stakeholder submissions to a public consultation on the Soft Drinks Industry Levy (SDIL), which was led by researchers from the Unit and London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine.
The report recommends mandatory – rather than voluntary – regulation of the food industry, giving the Food Standards Agency (FSA) independent oversight of the food system. It also recommends the exclusion of businesses that derive more than a defined share of sales from less healthy products from any discussions on the formation of policy on food, diet and obesity prevention.
Unit researchers recently developed the Food Research risK (FoRK) guidance and toolkit to help researchers to navigate engagement with the food industry, and to avoid conflicts of interest. The report highlights the value of the tool in providing researchers with help and guidance for collaborations with the food industry.
The impact of ultra-processed foods
The report cites recent published findings from research undertaken by Unit researcher Dr Yanaina Chavez-Ugalde and colleagues using data from the National Diet and Nutrition Survey, which found that adolescents from lower socio-economic backgrounds, of white ethnicity and from the north of England consumed more ultra-processed foods than average.
The report urges Government to commission further research into the links between ultra-processed foods (UPFs) and adverse health outcomes and review dietary guidelines to reflect any new evidence.
How to make food environments healthier
Unit-led research provided key evidence to support the Committee’s recommendations for creating a healthier food environment.
With colleagues at the University of Oxford, LSHTM, and the University of Bath, the Unit is leading the evaluation study of the Soft Drinks Industry Levy (SDIL). The report recommends the introduction of a new reformulation tax on businesses using salt and sugar, building on the success of the SDIL. The Committee cited findings from the SDIL study that the announcement of the SDIL led to many companies reducing sugar levels in drinks, while its introduction brought in revenue of between £300 and £350 million per year, without having long-lasting adverse financial impacts on soft drinks manufacturers, as well as having high levels of public support.
The report also calls for a ban on the advertising of less healthy food across all media by the end of this Parliament, citing evidence that included a 2020 paper by Unit researcher Dr Oliver Mytton and colleagues in 2020 that indicates that a 9pm watershed restriction on the advertising of food and beverages high in fat, sugar, and salt could lead to a 4.6% reduction in the prevalence of obesity in children.
Noting Unit-led research that finds takeaways are more common in deprived areas, and that who live near takeaway outlets are more likely to eat more takeaway food and have a higher body mass index, the report highlights a toolkit developed by Unit researchers in partnership with local authorities to support the successful implementation of takeaway management zones.
The importance of partnership
The House of Lords report highlights the breadth of Unit research, but also the importance of engaging with a range of partners to develop our research and translate our research findings into strategies that can reduce obesity, type 2 diabetes and related diseases.