The government has dropped plans for a food white paper to be published next year as part of its Food Strategy, which was released earlier today, The Grocer can reveal.
It is understood the proposals to set out plans for future policies and possibly legislation, which were included in an original draft of the proposals seen by The Grocer, were ditched after intervention from No 10.
The draft document, published earlier in the summer, carries five specific mentions of plans for a 2026 food white paper. The idea was highlighted as one of the key “next steps on delivery of the outcomes” in the original introduction due to have been made by minister for food security and rural affairs Daniel Zeichner.
“As we develop the content of the white paper we will continue to listen to and engage stakeholders across the food system,” sets out the draft.
The draft document sets out that the white paper would be developed whilst taking into account the risk that interventions to tackle health and the environment could lead to increasing food prices.
That wording has now been changed and the mention of a risk of prices being passed on to consumers is included only in an annex to the document.
Watered down plans
A source told The Grocer the scrapping of the white paper plans flew in the face of the government promising that the Food Strategy would receive buy-in from all sections of government.
They said: “It shows that Defra’s place in the Whitehall hierarchy is as low as it’s ever been.
“The government did not want to risk regulation and doesn’t want to spend money.”
The “watering down” of the plans for the strategy also follow a backlash received by ministers from sections of industry to the make up of the Food Strategy Advisory Board.
When in March, Defra named 13 ‘big hitters’ to form the board chaired by Zeichner – including figures such as England’s chief medical officer Professor Chris Whitty –sources expressed fears that the make-up of the board was too geared towards regulation.
Sources told The Grocer at the time they were worried about “what its empahisis will be” given the presence of bodies such as Nesta, the Food Foundation and FSA chairman Professor Susan Jebb, who has been outspoken on calls for further fiscal meassures against food companies.
Another source told The Grocer: “I have to admit my initial reaction when reading today’s report is I’m not exactly sure what they are going to do differently to the previous government.
“Even the HFSS marketing restrictions are listed as current policy, in annex B of the report.
“Given that it was only last week we heard they were going to be repealed to be replaced by something smarter this seems a bit strange.”
‘No decisions’
An NGO source said the scrapping of the white paper was at odds with the support the PM had given to the 10-year-plan for the NHS, in which Keir Starmer wrote the foreword himself.
“I would say that the biggest thing missing from the Food Strategy, is the Food Strategy,” they said.
“This is very much in contrast to the 10-year plan which came out earlier this month and clearly had been backing of No 10. The Food Strategy was supposed to be very cross-government but the only department that really counts is the Treasury.
“With the food white paper being erased it seems like Defra has been speaking to everyone apart from the ones that hold the purse-strings.”
A Defra spokeswoman told The Grocer: ”This government is committed to developing a Food Strategy where everyone stands to benefit from a nutritious, sustainable, and resilient food system.
“The Good Food Cycle represents a major milestone in developing a food system that’s fit for the future. No decisions have been made on the format of any future publications.”
No comments yet