Meetings

This FHF meeting discussed an update on the evidence of low-carbohydrate diets and diabetes. Our speakers at this meeting were: Sir George Howarth MP, former Vice-Chair of the APPG on Diabetes; Douglas Twenefour, Head of Care at Diabetes UK, and Jessica Sinclair Taylor representing Action on Sugar.

This FHF meeting discussed behaviour change in consumers. Our speakers at this meeting were: Stephane Dufour, a representative of the Real Meal Deal campaign; Dr Caraher, emeritus professor of food and health policy at City University; Cesar Torres, founder of The Good Pulse Company, and Dr Jeffrey Bray, Professor of Consumer Behaviour at Bournemouth University Business School.

This meeting was be held as a joint meeting with the All Party Parliamentary Groups on Health and Obesity discussing Ultra-Processed Food. The speakers included: Chris van Tulleken, doctor and author of the best selling book ‘Ultra-Processed People’; Dr Duane Mellor, senior lecturer at Aston University Medical School; and Sarah Le Brocq, founder of charity All About Obesity.

This FHF meeting discussed decarbonising the food system. Our speakers at this meeting were: Richard Ali of Tetra Pak, Baroness Jones of Moulsecomb from the Green Party, John Cherry of Groundswell, and Amy Fry of the National Farmers Union.

This FHF meeting discussed the National Food Strategy. Our speakers at this meeting were: Professor Dame Theresa Marteau, Director of Behaviour and Health Research Unit, University of Cambridge; and Dr Victoria Sibson, Director of the First Steps Nutrition Trust.

The Forum held its AGM and discuss the government’s obesity policy. At the AGM, Lord Balfe stood down as vice-chair and Jo Gideon MP was elected vice-chair; all the other current Officers were re-elected. The Forum’s financial statement and Budget were approved; and the programme of meetings for 2023 were agreed. The minutes for this meeting can be found here: FHF AGM Minutes (May 2023).The guest speakers were Lord Bethell, Obesity APPG co-chair and Dr Denise Ratcliffe, Consultant Clinical Psychologist with Phoenix Health.

This FHF meeting discussed the impact of Brexit on the food sector. Our speakers at this meeting were: Professor David Barling, Professor of Food Policy and Security, University of Hertfordshire; Dominic Goudie, Head of International Trade, Food and Drink Federation; and Emily Miles, CEO, Food Standards Agency.

The next FHF meeting discussed sustainable healthy diets. Our speakers at this meeting were: Ruth Westcott, Climate and Nature Emergency Co-ordinator, Sustain: the alliance for better food and farming; Dr Clare Pettinger, Lecturer in Public Health Dietetics, University of Plymouth; and Cathy Capelin, Head of Health and Sustainable Consumption, The Institute of Grocery Distribution. 

The next FHF meeting focused on cultivated meats and alternative proteins. Our speakers at this meeting were: Linus Pardoe, UK Policy Manager, The Good Food Institute Europe; Dr Emma Lewis, VP Product, Ivy Farm; and Paul Tossell, Head of Novel Foods and Radiological Policy Team, Food Standards Agency. 

The next FHF meeting focused on the discuss the voluntary sugar reduction programme. Our speakers at the meeting were: Lauren Bandy, University of Oxford; Kate Halliwell, Food and Drink Federation; and Freddie Von Kaufmann, Royal Society for Public Health. 

This meeting discussed changing dietary needs as we age. Our speakers at this meeting were: Professor Alexandra Johnstone, University of Aberdeen; Dr Sorrel Burden, University of Manchester; and Dr Miriam Clegg, University of Reading. 

Officers of the Forum met on 29 March to hold the Annual General Meeting for the coming year. They re-elected all the current Officers, Julie Elliott MP was elected as a new vice-chair, they approved the Forum’s financial statement and Budget; and agreed the programme of meetings for 2022. The minutes for this meeting can be found here: FHF AGM Minutes (March 2022).

On 22 February, the Forum held a meeting on UK Food Policy, the Internal Market & Common Frameworks with Baroness Crawley, Labour Peer and member of the Common Frameworks Scrutiny Committee; Professor Tim Benton, Research Director, Chatham House; and Geoff Ogle, Chief Executive, Food Standards Scotland.

Henry Dimbleby published his long awaited Part II report (evidence) on what is needed to produce a sustainable and healthy national food strategy for England in 2021. It examines how changing the way food is produced and sold in England can help address our health problems, including obesity, and protect the environment. His recommendations include new taxes on wholesale salt and sugar to encourage reformulation (£3 per kilogram of sugar and £6 per kilogram of salt); and he urged the Government to spend at least part of the revenue raised from these measures on policies to promote health, including making fruit and vegetables more available to people on low incomes. Among many other important recommendations, the report also recommends mandatory reporting for large food companies, which it says should publish annual sales reports by food type in both revenue and volume terms, thus revealing the significance of their sales of “unhealthy” food products. The report argues that this would encourage food reformulation, the provision of more healthy options and improve the marketing of healthy products. Mr Dimbleby also wants the Government to strengthen the Government’s public sector food procurement guidelines to ensure that taxpayer money is spent on healthy and sustainable food. Defending his recommendations, Henry Dimbleby said that many food industry leaders had told him privately that they would welcome interventions that created a level playing field while enabling them to produce healthier products, so that they could contribute to ending the “junk food cycle”.

This meeting considered the report in more detail and discussed next steps including the response of policymakers and stakeholders to the Dimbleby report. Our guest speakers were Anna Taylor, Executive Director of The Food Foundation and Professor Tim Lang of City, University of London.

The Forum (FHF) discussed Government action on obesity, including how policy governing children’s first 1000 days could be improved and the interaction of public health and international trade policy. The guest speakers were Dolly Theis, a PhD student at Cambridge University; Dr Vicky Sibson, Interim Director of the First Steps Nutrition Trust; and Orla Delargy, Head of Public Affairs at Sustain.

At its June meeting Forum members discussed UK food labelling post Brexit with Jennifer Garry of Public Health England, Kate Halliwell of the Food and Drink Federation; and Professor Chantal Julia of Sorbonne Paris Nord University. Members were briefed on the new processes in place for authorising nutrition and health claims on food in the UK; and heard about the UK food industry’s views and hopes for post Brexit UK food labelling. They also learnt about the development of the French Nutri-Score nutrition labelling scheme and its effectiveness in helping consumers to select healthier food options.

On 20 April members discussed how the public sector procurement of food and catering services can be used to promote healthy diets with Dr Francesco Branca, Director of the Department of Nutrition and Food Safety at the World Health Organisation (WHO). The meeting followed the publication earlier this year of a new Action Framework by the WHO, which provides an overview of how to develop or strengthen, implement, assess compliance with and evaluate the effectiveness of a healthy public food procurement and service policy.

On 23 February 2021 the Officers of the Forum held a virtual AGM. They re-elected all the current Officers, approved the Forum’s financial statement and Budget; and agreed the programme of meetings for 2021. The minutes for this meeting can be found here: FHF AGM Minutes (February 2021) This was followed immediately by a meeting to discuss the implementation in England of the 2020 hospital food review recommendations. The guest speakers were Philip Shelley, who chairs the expert working group leading this work; Tim Radcliffe of the East Lancashire Hospitals NHS Trust; and Lauren Bowen, Head of Patient Catering, ISS Facility Services Healthcare, ISS UK.

At the Forum’s last meeting of the year members discussed a national food strategy for England with Baroness (Rosie) Boycott, Rose Lasko-Skinner of Demos and Patrick Holden of the Sustainable Food Trust. The meeting followed intense debates in the House of Lords on the need to legislate through the Trade Bill to protect UK food standards in new free trade agreements and on the importance of respecting devolution through the Commons Frameworks in the context of the UK Internal Market Bill.

On 27 October members discussed the UK Government’s refreshed obesity strategy for England with Jo Churchill MP, the Public Health Minister responsible for implementing it, and Professor Susan Jebb of Oxford University. Susan Jebb is a nutrition scientist whose research interests are focused on how what we eat affects the risk of gaining weight or becoming obese and the interventions that might be effective to help people lose weight or reduce the risk of obesity-related diseases. She chaired the UK Responsibility Deal Food Network and was the Science Advisor for the Foresight obesity report 2007.

On Tuesday 8th September, members discussed Covid-19, healthy eating, and changing attitudes to our food and diets with Hannah Pearse of the Institute of Grocery Distribution, Dr Paul Chadwick, Deputy Director of the Centre for Behaviour Change at University College London; and Susan Lanham-New, Professor of Human Nutrition and Department Head at the University of Surrey.

On 14 July, Sharon Hodgson MP chaired a Forum discussion about infant feeding during which members heard presentations from Declan O’Brien of the British Specialist Nutrition Association; Dr Nazanin Zand of the University of Greenwich at Medway and Professor Amy Brown of Swansea University.

On 23 June the Forum held its first ever virtual meeting to discuss the safety and use of Aspartame. The guest speakers were: Professor Erik Millstone of Sussex University; Dr Caroline Saunders, a member of the British Soft Drinks Association sweeteners working group; and Dr Helen Crawley of First Steps Nutrition Trust.

At our first meeting of the year, members discussed plant-based diets and health, including the relative merits of the Eat Lancet and Eatwell guidelines and some of the key findings presented at a recent international conference held at King’s College London. The speakers were Professor Tim Key of Oxford University and Dr Shireen Kassam of Plant-Based Health Professionals UK.

Officers of the Forum met on 28 January to hold a Reconstitution meeting/AGM. They re-elected all the current Officers, Sharon Hodgson was elected as a new vice-chair, they approved the Forum’s financial statement and Budget; and agreed the programme of meetings for 2020. The minutes for the meeting can be found here: FHF minutes – AGM (28 January 2020).

At 00.01am on Wednesday 6 November, Parliament was dissolved in order for the general election to take place on Thursday 12 December. In one of their last acts before dissolution, MPs elected Lindsay Hoyle, the former Deputy Speaker, as the new Speaker of the House of Commons. Following dissolution there are no MPs, only Parliamentary Parliamentary Candidates, and All Party Parliamentary Groups cannot function until they have been re-established in the new Parliament. The Food and Health Forum has therefore had to postpone its planned meeting on 3 December to discuss plant-based diets and health until the New Year.

On 22 October 2019 the Forum held its AGM. They re-elected all the current Officers, approved the Forum’s financial statement and Budget; and agreed the programme of meetings for the rest of the year. The minutes of the meeting can be found here: FHF Minutes – AGM & Tackling Malnutrition in England (22 October 2019).There was also a meeting discussing the impact on health of malnutrition in England, and work to tackle it in the community and care settings. The guest speakers were Dr Trevor Smith, President of the British Association of Parenteral and Enteral Nutrition (BAPEN); Professor Jane Murphy of Bournemouth University; and Mr Declan O’Brien, Director General of the British Specialist Nutrition Association (BSNA).

At the Forum’s last meeting before the summer recess members discussed how we can best encourage healthy eating and tackle childhood obesity, including the National School Breakfast Programme, and the Government’s policies on sugar. The speakers were Professor Mary Rudolf, the founder of the HENRY programme; Professor Jack Winkler and Carmel McConnell, Founder of Magic Breakfast.

On 21 May members discussed children’s diet and food advertising with James Barge, Director of Policy for the Incorporated Society of British Advertisers, and Barbara Crowther, the Children’s Food Campaign Co-ordinator at Sustain. The meeting was held in order to inform members’ views given the Government’s consultation on options for further restrictions on the advertising of HFSS foods, which closes on 10 June 2019.

On 26 March in a meeting chaired by Baroness Walmsley members discussed diet, diabetes and dementia as well as how to communicate public health advice effectively. The guest speakers were Roy Taylor, Professor of Medicine and Metabolism at Newcastle University; Samantha Nicklin, Head of Public Affairs and Campaigns for the Alzheimer’s Society; and Dr David Halpern, Chief Executive of the Behavioural Insights Team (formerly known as the No.10 “Nudge Unit”).

The Forum discussed the possible introduction in the UK of mandatory fortification of flour with folic acid in order to reduce the risk of foetal neural tube defects. The guest speakers were: Kate Steele, Chief Executive of Shine; Professor Nicholas Wald of the Wolfson Institute of Preventive Medicine; and Alex Waugh, Director General of the National Association of British and Irish Flour Millers.

At its last meeting of the year, chaired by Baroness Jenkin, the Forum discussed food poverty, including “holiday hunger”. The speakers were two Parliamentary members of the Forum, Baroness (Rosie) Boycott and the Labour Shadow Public Health Minister, Sharon Hodgson MP.

The Forum held a discussion about the implications of Brexit – with or without a “deal” – for the UK food industry and our food policy on 30 October.

The guest speakers were: Rt Hon Hilary Benn MP, Chair of the House of Commons Exiting the EU Select Committee; Sir Bernard Jenkin MP, Chair of the House of Commons Public Administration and Constitutional Affairs Select Committee; and Jason Feeney CBE, Chief Executive of the Food Standards Agency

At their last meeting before the summer recess, parliamentary members of the Forum held the Annual General Meeting for the coming year. They re-elected all the current Officers, Lord Balfe was elected as a new vice-chair, they approved the Forum’s financial statement and Budget; and agreed the programme of meetings for the coming year. The minutes can be found here: FHF AGM Minutes – July 2018. Forum members also discussed antimicrobial resistance, food animal and human health with Professor Jonathan Van-Tam, the Deputy Chief Medical Officer for England, and John Fishwick, President of the British Veterinary Association. They were reminded of Lord O’Neill’s warning that unless drastic steps were taken to tackle AMR, 10 million lives a year could be at risk by the middle of the century. More encouragingly the guest speakers reported that the UK is making very good progress in reducing the prescription of antibiotics in primary care and the livestock sector. At present the UK is the only country to have brought its antibiotic usage in farming below the O’Neill review’s recommended limit of 50mg per kilo of live animal’s weight (50mg/k).

On 22 May the Forum held a meeting to discuss Public Health England’s (PHE)’s Progress_Report for the sugar reduction programme, which challenges food companies to cut 20% of sugar from the range of products which contribute most to the sugar in children’s diet by 2020, with a 5% reduction in the first year. The meeting could not have been more timely because the report was published the same day. We were delighted to welcome Victoria Targett, PHE Team Leader, Dietary Improvement, as one of our guest speakers alongside Liam Trow of Burton’s Biscuits and Vyas Adhikari of Oxford University. Liam Trow provided a very helpful insight into the practical difficulties which some parts of the food industry face in reformulating food to reduce its sugar content. Vyas Adhikari spoke about new research on sugar levels in drinks over the last 5 years; a food database which is tracking the nutritional data of all products available in the major supermarkets and modelling work being done on the health impact of successfully achieving the Government’s sugar reduction strategies.

At its March meeting the Forum discussed the scope post-Brexit for UK agriculture and health policies which encourage and support a more healthy and sustainable diet in the UK. Members present heard passionate presentations from Kath Dalmeny, Chief Executive of Sustain; Caroline Drummond of Linking Environment And Farming and Dr Helen Crawley of First Steps Nutrition Trust. In particular, Kath Dalmeny urged members to respond to the Government’s consultation on its policies for farming and the environment post-Brexit, to encourage the Government to add public health explicitly to its list of “public goods” in options for farm support. The deadline for responding to the consultation document, Health and Harmony: The future for food, farming and the environment in a Green Brexit, is 8 May 2018.

At its first meeting of the year, the Forum discussed the progress achieved to date in terms of reformulating processed food in the UK to reduce its salt content and possible next steps, including the COT-SACN report on potassium-based sodium replacers. The guest speakers were: Professor Graham MacGregor of Consensus Action on Salt; Dawn Hardy on behalf of the Food Additives and Ingredients Association; and Professor Susan Lanham-New, Head of Nutritional Sciences at the University of Surrey.