The Broken Plate Report 2025 has found that too many people in the UK do not have the finances to access healthy, quality food. The report also evidences the fact that a great deal of the food that is easily available and marketed to the population is damaging to both our health and our planet.

Researchers from the MRC Epidemiology Unit contributed to the Food Foundation’s report by building on the food price research first conducted in 2014: their analysis found that:

• Healthier foods continue to be more expensive calorie-for-calorie than less healthy food.
• Whilst the price of less healthy foods has started to stabilise after the rapid inflation in 2021-23, the price of healthier foods has continued to increase.
• This means there is a widening gap between the cost of more and less healthy foods.

The report collates data from a range of sources, revealing a broken food system, with glaring health inequalities.

The Broken Plate report sadly shows that our food system is failing to provide large swathes of the population with the basic nutrition needed for them to stay healthy and thrive. There is a tragic imbalance in the UK between the food that is marketed, available and affordable, and foods that are healthy and sustainable. Often it is the most vulnerable children in our society who suffer the worst consequences of this. Not only can lack of nutrition lead to serious health conditions, it can also lead to children being unable to concentrate in school and have lasting negative impact on mental health, entrenching inequalities from a young age.”
– _{Anna Taylor, Executive Director, The Food Foundation}

Key findings

• Food promotions – Over a third (37%) of supermarket promotions on food and non-alcoholic drinks are for unhealthy food.
• Advertising – >36% of food and soft drink advertising spend is on confectionery, snacks, desserts and soft drinks, compared to just 2% on fruit and veg.
• Marketing of infant foods – 74% of the baby and toddler snacks that have front-of-pack promotional claims contain high or medium levels of sugar.
• Sugar in children’s food products – Only 3% of breakfast cereals and 5% of yogurts marketed to children are low in sugar.
• Places to buy food – 26% of places to buy food in England are fast-food outlets, remaining unchanged for six years.
• Cost of more sustainable options – More sustainable, plant-based milk alternatives in supermarkets are on average 55% more expensive than dairy milk.
• Cost of healthy food – On average, healthier foods are more than twice as expensive per calorie as less healthy foods, with healthier food increasing in price at twice the rate in the past two years.
• Affordability of a healthy diet – To afford the government recommended healthy diet, the most deprived fifth of the population would need to spend 45% of their disposable income on food, rising to 70% for those households with children.
• Nutritious food consumption – On average, children consume less than half the recommended amount of fruit and veg but twice the recommended amount of sugar.
• Greenhouse gas emissions from the food system – While UK emissions for the whole economy fell by 38% between 2008 and 2022, emissions from the food system fell by just 17% over the same period of time.
• Children’s weight – Children in the most deprived fifth of the population are nearly twice as likely to be living with obesity as those in the least deprived fifth by their first year of school.
• Diabetes-related amputations – The number of diabetes-related lower-limb amputations increased by 68% since 2009.
• Dental decay – Children in the most deprived fifth of the population are more than twice as likely to have tooth decay in their permanent teeth compared to those in the least deprived fifth by their last year of primary school.