Research

This policy brief outlines what the research says about changing diets and explores consumption-focused measures that could help reduce animal-based products in diets. The recommendations in the brief focus on higher-income countries that consume more than their equitable share of global meat and dairy, and where the excessive intake of red and processed meat is thought to lead to adverse health outcomes. The brief presents an overview of the environmental impacts of meat and dairy, and provides a brief review of the research on changing diets, before reviewing three high-impact, practical policy ideas which are ripe for implementation. The goal of this policy brief is to move the conversation beyond controversy over the idea of intervening to shape public diets, and towards practical policy discussions on how, given the extreme urgency, this can be done.

There is widespread scientific agreement that eating less meat in developed countries, in particular industrially-produced meat, is good for public health and a vital step to reducing the burden our food system places on our planet. As an increasing number of individuals aim to reduce their meat consumption, eating more local, high quality meat, adopting flexitarian diets, or even going vegetarian or vegan, an important question arises: are supermarkets, our closest partners in feeding ourselves and our families, doing enough to help? This scorecard assesses UK retailers against a set of criteria designed to explore their efforts to reduce the impact of meat production in their supply chains, and their in-store offer to shoppers to support them in eating better quality meat and reducing their meat consumption overall.

The IPCC's 2019 Special Report on Land Use and Climate Change found that the way food is produced is both a major driver of climate change and biodiversity loss, among other environmental challenges, and compromising our ability to grow food in the future. Our food system contributes up to a third of our global Greenhouse Gas emissions. But so much can be done to ensure we can all have access to good food, while making space for nature and reducing our risk of climate breakdown. But what action to take, and where? In line with IPCC’s conclusions, this and subsequent policy brief by Foodrise will spotlight demand-side policy interventions that can deliver for people and the planet, across sustainable diets, shorter supply chains and preventing food waste. In this policy brief we consider a central question: If policymakers were to take the potential of demand-side food system measures as seriously as is warranted by the IPCC’s findings, what should they do? And how?

Farming salmon draws on a key resource: wild fish, sourced from oceans all over the world. This report looks in detail at the Scottish farmed salmon industry, their plans to double in size, and the feed inputs they will need to fuel that expansion. Can that growth be achieved sustainably? We ask three questions of the industry: first, can the Scottish salmon industry meet its growth ambitions while decreasing its reliance on wild fish stocks? Second, can it meet its growth ambitions while reducing its land footprint? And finally - is Scottish farmed salmon an environmentally sustainable way to meet our protein needs?

Reaching Net Zero emissions within an ambitious timeframe will require action on the food system. Many of these actions offer double and triple-wins. In particular: Shifting consumption towards sustainable, plant-based foods offers co-benefits in terms of improved public health. Reducing supply chain and household food waste offers opportunities to shrink the UK’s agricultural footprint and local environmental impacts such as nitrogen pollution, while sparing land for afforestation and rewilding. Meanwhile, nurturing the UK’s horticultural food production to shorten supply chains and encouraging public institutions to source food from their region offers opportunities to increase employment opportunities in the UK food sector, and cultivate regional prosperity and resilience. Read Foodrise's recommendations on harnessing the potential of demand-side measures to shift towards a sustainable food system.

How much of this discarded milk was still safe to drink? Anecdotally we all know that milk kept in a fridge generally remains good to drink for several days after its ‘Use By’ date. But we at Foodrise wanted to know if anecdote was backed by science. We commissioned laboratory testing at the University of Chester NOW Food Lab to see how long milk really keeps. The food scientists found that milk from the four UK supermarkets with the largest market share (Tesco, Sainsbury’s, Asda and Morrisons), kept at the recommended temperature for a household fridge (4° Celsius – the WRAP recommendation is below 5° Celsius) and unopened until tested, remained safe to drink seven days after their ‘Use By’ dates.

We ranked the UK’s top ten supermarkets based on publicly available information on their work to reduce food waste. Our ranking assessed the supermarkets against the food use hierarchy which requires that prevention be the priority towards tackling waste. Tesco is ranked at number one, while Waitrose came out at the bottom of the pack. Other supermarkets known for their strong reputations on sustainability, including Co-op and Marks & Spencer, also scored poorly.

Based on Feedback’s experience working with farmers through our Gleaning Network, and a survey of farmers, this report examines the systemic role that supermarkets play in the overproduction and subsequent waste of food on UK Farms. Farmers we surveyed reported reported that together they wasted approximately 22,000-37,000 tonnes per year, equal to enough produce to provide up to 250,000 people with five portions of fruit and vegetables a day for a year.

Based on extensive research into supply chain food waste in Peru, Senegal, South Africa, the UK and a major European port. This report’s findings show a concentration of power in the groceries sector has allowed supermarkets to dictate the terms and conditions by which food is grown, harvested, and transported, and that this concentration of power has given supermarkets the power to force suppliers to waste food through stringent cosmetic specifications and unfair rejections of food.

This report shows that Kenyan farmers are being subjected to unfair trading practices such as last minute cancellation of orders and unnecessarily strict cosmetic standards by European retail buyers resulting in massive amounts of food waste. As a result of Feedback’s work, in April 2016 Tesco agreed to change their rules on Kenyan green beans to stop forcing their suppliers to top and tail their produce. They estimate this will save more than 160 tonnes of food waste a year.