A Rallying Cry against Ultra Processed Food

How did we get here and is there a way out? by Antonia Lloyd

TV presenter Kate Quilton introduced it as '“the hottest ticket in town” on Tuesday night as an illustrious panel gathered at Cookery School, Little Portland Street, for ‘Enough is Enough: Fight Fake Food’ with a glass of organic wine and not a processed canape in sight. There was Chris van Tulleken, author of bestselling Ultra Processed People: Why Do We All Eat Stuff That Isn’t Food… and Why Can’t We Stop? who trained in medicine at the University of Oxford; his sister-in-law Dr Dolly van Tulleken, co-author of Nourishing Britain (a political manual offering practical insights to today’s politicians on how to solve the UK’s obesity crisis); Sue Pritchard, the Chief Executive of The Food, Farming and Countryside Commisson who is also a farmer in the Welsh Rhondda Valley; and Cookery School’s Founder, Rosalind Rathouse, with a 60-year perspective on food and teaching.

(Panel from right to left: Kate Quilton, Sue Pritchard, Dr Dolly van Tulleken, Chris van Tulleken, Rosalind Rathouse)

Fighting the issue of fake food couldn’t be more topical or urgent right now. The UK has the worst record in Europe: 51% of the UK’s daily energy in adults is made up from ultra processed foods (UPFs) and 68% in teenage diets. The shocking success of UPFs has been driven by corporate food businesses and their agressively targeted marketing and advertising strategy creating highly processed food high in fat, sugar and salt, that is dangerously addictive, low in nutritional value, and slow to fill you up. It has, tragically, displaced, for large swathes of the population, the art of cooking and eating from scratch. By 2050, over 50% of the world will be overweight or obese according to The Lancet and this week’s report by the American Journal of Preventive Medicine made headlines: in the UK and the US, where ultra-processed foods account for more than half of calorie intake, 14% of early deaths could be linked to the harms they cause.

The urgency of the issue is palpable. Channel 4 presenter of Food Unwrapped, Kate, cut to the chase asking the panel if our food system is ‘truly f***d’. Each of the panel had insights that were invaluable whilst their combined solutions were, dare I say it, hopeful and inspiring.

For Chris van Tulleken, it’s not ordinary people who are to blame – ‘we’re up against large corporations who may have between £10-20 billion annually to spend on consumer-facing marketing’ making good choices relentlessly difficult. Governments cannot deny the medical evidence and the policy insights to introduce controls are there, the big stumbling block comes down to one thing: conflicts of interest. Chris estimates that 65% of boards and advisory committees have conflicts of interest in the food industry making change nigh on impossible. For legislation to make sense, he suggests consultations with industry but no one from business should have their voice heard at committee level. Furthermore, we need a cultural shift so there is a sense of cultural shame working with people who push this destructive food system.

In her paper ‘Nourishing Britain’ with Henry Dimbleby, Dr Dolly van Tulleken has extensively analysed the last three decades’ of failures by the government to improve nutrition and curb rising obesity levels. She emphasises that, ‘700 different government policies have been considered since Sir William Waldegrave’s first modern health strategy in the 1990s.’ Governments have encountered political obstacles at every turn - libertarians in Westminter consider it nanny statist to interfere with what people eat; attempts to legislate have been stymied by industry lobbying and fears about the impact on business; and responsibility for the food system sits across multiple government departments, making it harder to create collaborative momentum whilst the obesity rise has been gradual. Osborne’s 2018 tax on sugary drinks in cans and cartons is the only notable law to pass and, Dolly explains, ‘it was developed by a tight team of civil servants outside of the food industry and kept secret from colleagues and even the PM till fairly late’, thereby reinforcing Chris’s point that industry has to be removed from any policy discussion. In recent years it has fallen off the list of priorities with Dolly citing it ceasing to be a priority since 2022. In addition, with the current government and Chancellor, Rachel Reeves, seeing corporations as “government contributors” not “government extractors” (unhealthy diets are estimated to cost the UK £98 billion a year), the future is fairly bleak. The lifeline currently being thrown by Westminster is a consultation into widening the sugar drinks tax to include sweet milky drinks. At this point a few less canned milkshakes and lattes won’t quite cut it.

For Sue, a Welsh farmer and head of the Food, Farming and Countryside Commission, she wants to see more public support: ‘Politicians don’t yet feel the heat’. She’s finding that citizens want bans but they’re not yet going to their MPs and urges us all to do so. The fight for her is all about greater public engagement. For too long politicians have hidden behind old tropes – avoiding accusations of being a nanny state, being anti-business, rather than focussing on assuring a thriving food scene. Politicians have also played into this idea of ‘real food’ being the antithesis of what we actually want – pulling pints, eating fish and chips and processed pork pies– as a way to be down with the people. ‘It can sound like a very privileged thing to be asking for. In other countries it’s not seen as a priviledge to eat fresh or organic food. Why should it appear elite?’ Interestingly, Dolly suggests that it’s due to British industrialisation 100 years earlier than our EU neighbours that has led to our nostalgic relationship with brands and a more enduring passion for processed foods.

Cookery school founder Rosalind Rathouse has seen ready meals develop from what was a relatively pure product in the 1980s to what it is now – full of artificial, noxious substances to prolong shelf life. 40 years ago, she helped produce ready-made pies, cakes for Waitrose with a one week shelf life which were all made of proper ingredients, but when British Airways asked her to make mini quiches for 3p, she walked away. She knew that artificial eggs and milk substances just to hit the price point wasn’t for her. Ros’s solution is to remind people of the superiority of delicious, home cooked food and how much better it tastes and is for your health. Her maxim is: ‘anyone can learn to cook in 20 hours’ and she stands by it. Ros has designed a free online course delivered by her brilliant cookery school team that ran in February 2024 and was proven to get people back to cooking from scratch. It will be running again this May 6^th for 20 days. ‘I’m calling it Cook for Victory because this is a war’. Ros wants a war on UPFs and obesity, a continued push against big food businesses, and greater education with cooking taught in schools. To mobilise this campaign at a citizen level, she’s aiming for a petition reaching 100,000 signatures, a march that we’re all invited to, and is encouraging everyone to write to their MP. Currently MPs are not responsive: Dr Dolly is being ghosted by hers despite writing to him regularly, while audience member and chef Peter Weeden of Britain’s first certified organic pub, The Duke of Cambridge in Islington, recently collared Emily Thornberry, MP for Islington South and Finsbury, who declared that it just isn’t high enough up the agenda right now.

Chef Maddy will be co-lead on the national cookery programme at Cookery School

Getting a positive message out, that domestic, home-cooked food is good for you, is as important as shaming the nasties. But how do you create a culture of shame that makes working with big food corporations unpalatable? The panel argued for different voices, cross-society support for a healthy food system, that ensure that politicians don’t buy into the idea that it’s too expensive to cook. Comparisons were made with how legislation eventually caught up with the tobacco industry which at one time seemed invincible. There will be a tipping point that will force government to act more decisively. Ripples are there with the first US legal cases of individuals against big food business.

The panel’s solutions were practical and inspiring - food education being key while public support gathers momentum and pushes government to act. For Sue, the ultimate goal is easy: ‘just ban the bad stuff’. Fight Fake Food is a rallying cry for action that invites us all to make our voice heard. Layla Moran, MP for Oxford West and Abingdon, i’ll be writing to you.

For more information on the Cookery School’s National Cookery Programme starting on May 6th, enrol for free here.

For more information on UPFs, the Soil Association’s campaign is a great resource.