The Soil Association has warned in a new report about the danger of unhealthy eating and obesity worsening in the UK if post-Brexit trade deals do not account for public health outcomes.
In the report, ‘Brexit: Trade, Healthy Eating and Obesity’, three major risks are identified, including a great influx of low-cost, ultra-processed foods, price volatility of fresh vegetables leading to a drop in consumption, and a reversion to WTO rules on tariffs adversely affecting voluntary initiatives promoting healthy eating.
Honor Eldridge, policy officer at the Soil Association, commented: “The future of the UK’s trading relationship with the EU and other countries remains uncertain. Such ambiguity is concerning as half of the UK’s food is imported. Any future trade deal will have profound impacts on our food and farming systems and, by consequence, on public health.”
The Soil Association has called on the government to ensure public health continues to be protected by making fresh and minimally processed foods more available and affordable, supporting UK farmers in producing high-quality food that benefits public health, as well as the environment and animal welfare, and using public procurement to stimulate demand for home-grown produce.
“With diet-related ill health and obesity on the rise, it is vital that the UK’s future trade relationships give the UK the ability to implement policies that deliver healthy food at a reasonable cost to all citizens,” Eldridge said.
