Campaigns Breakfast: Ultra Processed Foods

Campaigns breakfast meetings are here for you to connect and share with other local campaigners, hear national updates on issues related to the campaigns, and feedback your campaign progress and experiences. This time, we’re talking with the Soil Association about ultra-processed foods.

The Soil Association’s latest report on ultra-processed foods explains that they “typically contain little or no whole foods, are ready-to-consume or heat, and are made using industrial additives and processes that wouldn’t be found in a household kitchen. They are often high in fat, salt and added sugar, and depleted in dietary fibre. They tend to be aggressively marketed. Such foods make up the bulk of the UK diet, comprising more than 50 per cent of the average shopping basket.”

This Campaigns Breakfast was a chance to hear from the Soil Association about ultra-processed foods, and to give SFP members a space to share their concerns and discuss how we might all start to address the prevalence of UPFs in our diets. What action can we take and who do we need to influence?

In this session we heard from Rob Percival - Head of Food Policy at the Soil Association, Vicky Sibson - Director of First Steps Nutrition Trust and Councillor Jackie Floyd - Chair of the Blackburn with Darwen Food Resilience Alliance. We then split into breakout rooms to discuss action at a local level before coming together again to feedback and reflect on the discussions.

Recording here.

Slides here.

Session Miro board here.