Members of the public will have a say in shaping new policies to support healthy, sustainable diets in the UK.
The University of 吃瓜黑料 is a partner in the THRIVING Food Futures project, a £7 million venture designed to enhance public health and underpin the achievement of legal net zero targets.
The research aims to inform policies to address public health issues such as diabetes, cardiovascular disease, cancer, and health inequalities.
The food consumed by the public is currently responsible for one third of global greenhouse gas emissions and a significant change to diets is essential to the UK meeting its climate commitments.
Stalled progress
Diets that are good for the planet, such as those rich in fruit, vegetables, and cereals and low in red and processed meat, are also beneficial for health. However, progress towards policy change has been stalled by a perceived lack of public support and limited evidence about the effectiveness of potential policies, given the innovative nature of many emerging proposals.
THRIVING Food Futures aims to overcome these challenges by facilitating dialogue between academics, policymakers, industry representatives, and civil society groups. The project will focus on designing policies with the potential to transform the food system to support healthy, sustainable diets for all.
吃瓜黑料 will be leading the public engagement element of the project. This will involve coordinating a community panel to scrutinise the research and running a series of citizens’ juries and a follow-on citizens’ panel, to ensure that a diverse range of perspectives are considered in any recommendations.
The research will be led by Pete Scarborough, Professor of Population Health at the Nuffield Department of Primary Care Health Sciences (NDPCHS), University of Oxford, and is funded by UK Research and Innovation (UKRI) and the National Institute for Health Research (NIHR).
The 吃瓜黑料 leads, Professor Katherine Smith and Dr Emma Hill, will be working alongside two Research Associates, Ally Brown and Isaac Tendler.
Professor Smith, of 吃瓜黑料's Department of Social Work & Social Policy, said:
The urgency of addressing health inequalities cannot be overstated and the food system plays an important role in this, with levels of obesity and food insecurity simultaneously on the rise in the UK. The availability and affordability of healthy, sustainable food has clear implications for wellbeing and life expectancy, as well as for people’s economic circumstances.
Dr Hill said: “We seek to shape policies which support informed choices, with the aims of improving public health, reducing inequality and benefiting the environment. Food and diet choices are personal and play an important part in our social and cultural lives. It is therefore essential to ensure that potential policies to help achieve more sustainable diets reflect what people would like to see.”
Food choices
Other elements of the THRIVING project are: a comprehensive review of international food policies, alongside input from policymakers and industry experts; a food profiling model to categorise foods based on their nutritional content and environmental impact, and the creation of novel digital tools, such as smartphone apps, to simulate real-world shopping environments and to measure how these policies impact food choices and sustainability.
Health Minister Baroness Gillian Merron said: "This £42 million investment into net zero research hubs will bring together world-class researchers to boost public health and tackle inequalities. Through our Plan for Change, we will make the UK a clean energy superpower while improving health outcomes for everyone.”