A cross-sector letter has today been sent to the Prime Minister, Andy Burnham, calling on him to urgently introduce a Good Food Bill. This would act as a legally binding framework that would improve national food and nutrition security, public health and food system resilience. With wildfires raging across Europe and geopolitics remaining on a knife edge, the fragility of the UK food system is increasingly obvious. That fragility, alongside diet-related disease being at record highs, is now of clear concern to the public, business leaders, charities, health experts and farmers alike. The letter calls on the new Prime Minister to ensure the food system becomes a national priority, alongside energy and defence.
Signatories include major retailers Tesco, Sainsbury’s, Aldi, Co-op, Waitrose and Booths (making up more than 64 per cent of the grocery market share) as well manufacturers Danone, Greencore and Samworth Bros and foodservice wholesaler Bidfood, alongside leaders from investment, civil society, academia and the health sector. The Good Food Bill campaign is led by The Food Foundation, Green Alliance and Sustain.
The UK's food system has suffered repeated shocks in recent years. Farmers and growers face rising costs and increasing pressure from climate change and nature loss. International conflict has pushed fertiliser costs up by around 40 per cent since last year, while more frequent extreme weather events- highlighted by this summer's devastating wildfires across Europe- are making harvests increasingly vulnerable. Earlier this year, the Government's own National Security Assessment concluded that global biodiversity loss poses a direct threat to the UK's food supply. Together, these pressures are contributing to higher food prices, which are forecast to be 50 per cent higher this November than at the start of the cost of living crisis.
The letter states that, “Each new shock lands on a food system with less capacity to absorb it. British production of fruit and vegetables has fallen 16 per cent since 2015, and we now import 78 per cent of our supply. The next food shock is not a question of if, but when. To meet it prepared, food has to stop being an afterthought for the Government: we need mechanisms to put food high on the priority list of every part of government, both national and local, so that any decisions that impact on health, farming, planning, and trade secure better access to healthy and sustainable food for everyone.”
“The cost of doing nothing on this issue is already falling on those with the least resource, with food insecurity already affecting 15 per cent of households with children. Economic pressures continue to push a healthy diet further out of reach for many, with the NHS then left to pick up the bill.”
We also know that struggling families will often turn to cheaper, less healthy food and cut down on fruit and vegetables. The current annual cost of obesity in the UK alone is an estimated £126 billion (equivalent to around three per cent of the UK’s 2026 GDP), when accounting for the costs to the UK’s National Health Service and social care, lost productivity, workforce inactivity and welfare payments.
Polling in April found the Good Food Bill has net public support of +72, consistent across every political affiliation, and the letter today shows clear support from food industry giants as well as investors, civil society, academia and the health sector.
In a 2024 interview Andy Burnham himself said that food policy “is not a coherent whole”. A Bill would give food policy that coherence and priority, as well as provide a stable policy environment for businesses and investors.
The letter states a Good Food Bill would place food policy on a statutory long-term footing for the first time and should:
- Set legally binding targets to reduce childhood obesity, increase the consumption of fruit and vegetables and the proportion grown in Britain, and reduce household food insecurity;
- Require the Government to publish a Reference Diet, so that policy across departments works towards the same goals;
- Place a duty on Ministers to consider food in decisions across health, education, farming, planning, environment and trade;
- Require five-year Good Food Action Plans setting out how the targets will be met;
- Empower local leaders to have regard to food across their work to support local economies and reduce inequalities.
- Establish independent oversight to report annual progress publicly, so that commitments cannot be quietly dropped when priorities change.
"Poor diet, especially amongst children, is one of the biggest challenges facing the UK today," said Richard Hall, Vice President, General Secretary, Danone North Europe. "Addressing it will require Government, industry and civil society to work together on practical, evidence-based solutions. The Good Food Bill provides an important framework to improve public health while giving businesses the long-term certainty they need to invest and help deliver that change."
Anna Taylor, Executive Director, The Food Foundation, said, “The UK food system is dangerously exposed to shocks far beyond our borders. Over the last few years, we have seen this play out through rising food prices and increasing diet and health inequalities, with the price gap between healthy and less healthy food at the widest it's been for over a decade. At the same time farmers are struggling to make ends meet. What we need now is a Good Food Bill that sets out a long-term framework for building resilience in the UK food system — one that holds successive governments to account and protects businesses, citizens and farmers alike.”