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Elderly customers in the U.K. were found to be a nutritional risk group. A study of their shopping experiences from interviews produced merchandise related, retail practices, and staff, issues.

As one who has studied two centuries of UK food policies, I can say unhesitatingly that wars have been highly significant in framing policy-making. Coincidentally, our new Thames Valley University [...]

MAFF's London hq is called Nobel House. A fine bust to Mr Nobel is in the foyer. It amuses me because Nobel -- of prize fame -- actually sold explosives [...]

Why sell food when you can sell water?' asked a 1980s ad against food adulteration. Since food is sold by weight, and water is weight, the more water one could [...]

In his 2015 City Food Lecture this month, Richard Evans of PepsiCo presented a conventional account of the food system and how industry can address the health challenges of over-consumption. [...]

A flurry of media and public comment followed the publication of the Efra Committee's dairy report last week. The squeeze on dairy farmers is not new, nor unusual. It's just [...]

This week, the fifth annual City Food Symposium focused on Sustainable Diets. The case for changing consumption is strong, widely agreed by scientists, sections of industry, civil society and some [...]

New dietary guidelines for Americans are due next year. Revised every five years, they're outcomes of a long process. Outsiders may marvel at how this becomes heated; surely scientists can [...]

Next month, the UN hosts the second International Conference on Nutrition in Rome. The first ICN was back in 1992, and a lot has happened since then. The world's got [...]

Whitehall breathed a sigh of relief at the Scottish referendum result. Panicking at the prospect of losing, the big parties called out sections of the food industry to stop this [...]

The centenary of the creation of the first self-service supermarket is approaching. 1916 was when the self-service age began with Clarence Saunders opening his bizarrely named Piggly Wiggly stores in [...]

It's said poachers make good gamekeepers, knowing the tricks of the trade. I'm not sure this explains Tesco's board choosing Dave Lewis from Unilever to replace Philip Clarke. Understanding the [...]

e might sometimes regret our elected representatives. Parliamentary democracy can be messy. Watching the slow car crash of current UK policy, I remember Churchill's dictum: 'Democracy is the worst form [...]

EU elections have reminded mainstream politicians of public anger at perceived loss of local and national controls. Anti-immigrant and anti-Brussels sentiments shaped anti-establishment voting patterns, even in pro-EU Germany. Political [...]

Last week, 170 public health doctors and specialists wrote an open letter on food poverty to the PM, published in The Lancet. I signed this alarm call. The food industry [...]

The IPCC climate change report last week said agricultural productivity is likely to reverse. The British Isles are neither small nor huge. We have quite a bit of rain, a [...]

At what point does society change when faced with unpalatable facts? These days, policymakers claim they request fully costed impact assessments. Yet in food, the costs are staggering. So big [...]

For some time, it has been a wry joke that the 'f' in Defra no longer stands for 'food' but for 'floods'. Reputedly, the PM, when appointing the last secretary [...]

Sugar has long been a hot political issue. The Action on Sugar campaign launched last week was about its impact on public health. The evidence is pretty clear: the reduction [...]

There is a deep fissure now in food policy over meat. As we approach the slaughter-fest called Christmas, 1 it's a good time to reflect on the meat supply chain. [...]

The speed with which the politics of austerity has rocketed up the agenda since the autumn party conferences should not surprise food watchers. Ed Miliband's proposal to cap energy bills [...]

People smile at the tale of The Emperor's New Clothes. The crowds cheer the soldiers and monarch going past, ignoring the fact that they are stark naked ... until a [...]

UK consumer price inflation in July was 2.8%, with food inflation just higher than that. General inflation was mainly held down by drops in recreation and culture (last-minute holidays) and [...]

The launch of lab-grown 'meat' in London on 5 August 5 was brilliantly done. One 'burger', coloured by beetroot, doused with breadcrumbs, caramel and saffron. Questions arise. Is it meat? [...]

For many years, public health people have thought that if only they provided figures on the cost of poor diets, policymakers would respond. Reviewing national figures for a summer school [...]

The G8 has been interesting for food policy. Forget what we do at home. It's the global economy, stupid. First there was the Food Security Summit where G8 countries, African [...]

What is a sustainable diet? This innocuous question raises fiendishly complex issues. Do we eat for health? Cost? Environment? Social values? What we like or are given? Only what we [...]

Last week, David Heath, Defra minister for food, told the Daily Telegraph Britain needs to produce more food. He's right. I cheered. But will he deliver it? Labour entered the [...]

There's much media coverage when Chancellors present their Budgets to parliament. It's part theatre, part serious politics - the annual statement of short to medium-term national framework thinking. In reality, [...]

It's too early to judge the long-term impact of the horsemeat scandal. I've already received one briefing note from a media centre implying it's all fading. I disagree. Now is [...]

Food policy dived straight into deep waters as 2013 began. ONS reported December consumer price inflation at 2.7%. Food inflation was 'only' 1.2% but 3.3% year-on-year. Unemployment fell. Wages rose [...]

Food is an economic weathervane. It's associated with good times, sharing, celebrating. It's also divisive. Some eat (well), others don't. The rich have wider choices, the poor less. The Joseph [...]

Slowly, the penny is dropping that future food security requires a shift to sustainable diets. Some see this as a developing world problem--if only the BRICs wouldn't eat more meat [...]

Water, water everywhere. Nor any drop to ... give cattle, pigs and humans? In Andalucia, Spain, last week, I pondered how water is fundamental to food and civilisation. Marvelling at [...]

As the summer holidays end, Whitehall speculates about ministerial shuffles. Will this affect food? Mrs Spelman at Defra will already be remembered as the secretary of state who offered to [...]

Seven years in the planning and a few weeks in execution, the Olympics is a strange affair. Supporters argue the £9bn investment will generate bigger long-term returns. Tourism, goodwill and [...]

As the banking crisis continues, the politics remain the same, dominated by a desire to return to business-as-usual. Public opinion is uneasy. On the one hand, rallying round the Jubilee. [...]

In two weeks, world governments will meet in Rio de Janeiro to discuss sustainable development, the juxtaposition of people, economy and planet. It's another big chance to take the temperature [...]

What times we live in! I don't mean the welcome rain after drought. Nor how Lion Capital sold 60% of Weetabix to the Chinese state's Bright Food. Nor do I [...]

For decades, anyone watching world food commodity prices saw dropping graphs. It was not a sector for investment or speculation. The 2007-08 oil price spike changed everything. Prices rocketed, dropped, [...]

Defra is consulting about m its Green Food Project. This is bizarre given it has supposedly championed 'greening' the food system since 2001. Defra launched Food2030 26 months ago, when [...]

This June, the UN hosts the Conference on Sustainable Development in Rio de Janeiro. It's a return to Rio to stock-take the 1992 UN Conference on Environment and Development. The [...]

Amid the shock horror about mighty Tesco's faltering sales, there was one particularly interesting feature. No, not the stock market slashing share value by£5bn. Nor the fact Christmas six-week sales [...]

Food warranted one significant entry in the Chancellor's Autumn Statement. He acknowledged rising food prices but blamed this on 'external inflation shock' and 'unexpected rises in energy prices and global [...]

It's not nice being sacked. So I didn't cheer receiving my letter last week from the Department of Health abolishing the government's Expert Advisory Group on Obesity on which I [...]

This Sunday is World Food Day, created by the UN's Food and Agriculture Organization in 1979 to encourage reflection. Held on October 16, each year takes a theme. This year's [...]