Transforming the UK food system requires fundamental shifts in dietary patterns to address interconnected crises in public health, healthcare costs, economic productivity, widening social inequalities in food access and environmental degradation. Dietary change is one of three interconnected transformations alongside resilient agriculture and smarter land use.

Our current food system is faltering on all fronts: the general population does not meet national dietary guidelines, diet-related diseases cost £268 billion annually, and food production drives environmental degradation, causing over one fifth of all environmental and climate impacts in Europe. Furthermore, 20% of UK adults self report as food insecure and 69% report changing their eating habits due to financial pressures. Widening disparities in access to nutritious food are symptomatic of a system oriented more for profit than human and planetary resilience.

We call for urgent, coordinated action to shift UK dietary patterns as an essential component of transforming the food system to improve public health, planetary wellbeing, and economic prosperity.