Looking at health outcomes in the UK

The London City Food & Drink Lecture is marking its 25th anniversary tonight, with a challenge to the food and drink industry: can the next 25 years deliver better health outcomes than the last? It’s a good question. The event is featuring a keynote address from Professor Susan Jebb OBE, a nutrition scientist, who will examine the health of the nation and the critical role the food and drink sector must play in shaping a healthier future.

In her lecture, Professor Jebb will be reflecting on the past quarter-century, setting out the realities of diet-related ill health, including the rise in obesity, before looking forward to the next 25 years and posing the question of how we can make the next 25 years healthier, the organisers say.

It should be good talk, and will be followed by an interactive panel discussion chaired by Charlotte Smith, presenter of BBC One’s Countryfile and BBC Radio 4’s Farming Today. The panel will include: Christine Tacon, director of the Co-op Group, along with Ash Amirahmadi OBE, former managing director of Arla Foods UK. Ian Wright CBE will also join them. Together, the panel will debate whether incremental change is enough or whether transformation has become an existential imperative for parts of the industry.

As Professor Jebb notes, “Over the last 25 years, we have seen a huge increase in the prevalence of obesity and diet-related ill-health, driven not by a collapse in personal willpower, but a change in our food system. Small changes and good intentions on the part of businesses are not enough to turn the tide.”

The discussion is very timely as consumers, industry and government look at ways to improve the diet while still providing safe, nutritious and affordable food. Feeding the nation wisely has never been more important in these times.

• Suzanne Christiansen, editor, Dairy Industries International.
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