Calls for new prime minister Andy Burnham to back a new Good Food Bill with legally binding targets for fruit & veg consumption and obesity reduction grew today, as figures show almost one in eight households experiencing food insecurity.
New data released from the Food Foundation shows the proportion of households in the UK experiencing food insecurity has risen to 12.2% compared with 11.3% a year ago.
It also found the percentage of families hit by food insecurity had risen to one in six among households with children.
The figures add up to 6.5 million adults and 2.2 million children across the UK living in food insecure households.
This week Burnham appointed Yvette Cooper as the new health secretary in his first cabinet since becoming PM on Monday. Together with new environment secretary Angela Eagle, Cooper is expected to be given a brief to prioritise tackling food insecurity and targeting areas of deprivation with high levels of food poverty, in Burnham’s “cost of living” government.
The Food Foundation report said 9% of households have accessed food support in past six months, with the most common being a food bank.
The foundation said its findings came with a backdrop of concerns around the affordability of food, with food prices forecast to climb again through the rest of 2026 because of the US-Iran war, and climate shocks increasingly impacting harvests.
It found affordability remained a barrier to households eating more healthily and said it was calling on Burnham to address household food insecurity as a matter of urgency and ensure healthier diets are affordable for all.
It called for a support package for low-income families to afford healthy food – including expansion of Healthy Start, the benefit for pregnant women and parents with young children.
The Good Food Bill, which the Food Foundation had been calling for, backed by a large contingent of health bodies and with growing support from retailers and food manufacturers, would include legally binding targets for food insecurity, fruit & veg consumption and obesity reduction.
Today’s report also called on the government to introduce delayed proposals in Wes Streeting’s 10-year NHS plan, including mandatory reporting of healthy sales for big businesses, “without further delay”.
The Grocer revealed last week that the government’s Food Strategy Advisory Board, made up of retail leaders, food manufacturing bosses and academics had discussed the benefits of a Good Food Bill in its latest round of talks.
Sainsbury’s, whose CEO Simon Roberts is one of those on the board, was the last retailer to come out in support of such a bill, last week, joining M&S and the Co-op.
“Two years on from Labour coming into power and one year since the government published its ambitions for a Good Food Cycle, food insecurity levels in the UK remain unacceptably high,” said Food Foundation executive director Anna Taylor.
“International conflict and unprecedented weather patterns are forecast to drive food prices up even further by the end of the year.
“The new prime minister must take bold steps to ensure everyone can afford and access a healthy diet. We need urgent action to ensure the most vulnerable families are protected, and a Good Food Bill that sets out a long-term statutory framework for building public health and national and household resilience.”
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