September 18, 2025

Transforming UK Food Systems (TUKFS)

The way the UK produces, sells and eats food is fuelling major problems – from rising diet-related disease and the cost-of-living crisis to climate change, biodiversity loss and soil degradation. The impacts reach beyond public health, affecting the economy, people’s livelihoods, and the resilience of food businesses.

From getting surplus food to families who need it, to making school breakfasts higher-fibre and trimming the carbon footprint of hospital meals, new research sets out 27 practical actions to make the nation’s food healthier, fairer and greener.

The findings were published on Thursday 18^th September in a special issue of the Royal Society journal Philosophical Transactions B are the culmination of a £47.5 million, five-year-long, UKRI-funded research programme, Transforming UK Food Systems (TUKFS).

The recommendations, which are awaited by government ministers, could offer timely evidence for the next iteration of the UK government’s National Food Strategy.

The SMC working with our friends at UKRI invited some of the scientists involved to share their findings with journalists at an SMC briefing to cover studies looking at:

• How we can get healthier school breakfasts
• How we can make healthy food more affordable
• Evidence on whether food labels could indicate both nutritional and environmental value to guide shoppers

• Whether we can get usable “waste” food to families in a safe way

• How we can get lower-carbon meals into our hospitals
• How we can incentivise the public to eat more British beans and peas

Speakers included: 

Professor Guy Poppy, Director of the Transforming UK Food Systems Strategic Priorities Fund, and PVC Research and Innovation at the University of Bristol

Dr Annika Flynn, Senior Research Associate, University of Bristol

Professor Charlotte Hardman, Professor of Psychology of Eating Behaviour in the Department of Psychology, Institute of Population Health, University of Liverpool

Dr Clare Pettinger, Associate Professor in Public Health Dietetics, University of Plymouth