Received from: BDA
Congress believes that nobody should live in food poverty and that everyone should have a right to affordable, nutritious food and that this right should be enshrined in law.
In 2019, the government commissioned Henry Dimbleby to carry out an independent review of our food system. Part one of his report was published in 2020 with part two due this year. The government has committed to use the recommendations of the report as the basis for a national food strategy in the form of a White Paper. We must hold them to account on this.
Malnutrition, obesity, food poverty and many of the other challenges within or as a result our food system existed long before Covid-19 or Brexit and now is the time for urgent fundamental change. We cannot continue to have a system that simultaneously makes so many of us ill while leaving so many of us with too little to eat.
Congress welcomes the recommendations in part one of the report including:
i. the protection of the UK’s food standards and public health during trade negotiations, which should be opened up to greater parliamentary scrutiny
ii. the expansion of free school meals and the holiday and food programme and the Healthy Start voucher scheme in England.
Congress calls on the General Council to ensure that the government accept the recommendations in the report and to publish a comprehensive national food strategy as soon as possible.
British Dietetic Association