This research brief summarises the paper Mismatches between UK food supply and dietary guidelines: a dietary gap assessment, published in Public Health Nutrition. This paper is part of PhD research by Niamh Kelly, a PhD student from the first cohort of the UK Food System’s Centre for Doctoral Training, based at the Centre for Food Policy, City St George’s University of London.
While dietary guidelines are a useful tool for guiding the public on healthy eating, systemic barriers such as lack of affordability, access and availability of healthy food can prevent people from eating in line with recommended diets. This analysis focuses specifically on the availability of healthy diets for the UK population by comparing the UK food supply with the Eatwell Guide. The comparison of the total food supply based compared to the Eatwell guide is also broken down into food that is produced within the UK, as well as imports and exports.
Some key findings include:
- The food supply does not align with the Eatwell Guide, with an undersupply of fruit and vegetables, and an oversupply of dairy and oils.
- Only 7% of domestic food production (by weight) was fruit and vegetables.
- Approximately 40% of cereals, potatoes and starchy carbohydrates went to animal food in 2022.
There is potential for the Eatwell Guide to be used more broadly and incorporated into wider food systems policies and goals. This brief highlights the discrepancies between the food supply and Eatwell Guide, and provides recommendations for policymakers and nutrition professionals to close this gap.
