This paper analyses the annual reports and websites of 12 leading food and beverage companies and finds that a number of artificial intelligence (AI) enabled methods are being used to “nudge” consumer behaviour or choices, for example by changing the position of options on menu boards, automatically suggesting additional products based on a customer’s current choices, or using virtual-reality-based marketing.

This report from the UK’s Food, Farming & Countryside Commission investigates how people who are experiencing food insecurity make decisions about what to eat. It focuses on Devon, with the report interviewing food producers, people receiving emergency food, and others in the food system. Buyers and producers want to see more investment in small and sustainable food production, food projects built around community access, sharing of resources, and collective food buying and preparation.

This paper examines how narratives with epic elements - such as heroic figures, a difficult journey and facing monumental challenges - have developed around several well-known personalities in the nature-based agriculture movement.

The UK’s Food Standards Agency has released the results of its “Food and You 2”, a biannual survey of consumer knowledge, attitudes and behaviours related to food safety in England, Wales and Northern Ireland. The survey was conducted between April and June 2021, and hence records food behaviours linked to the COVID-19 pandemic.

46% of Europeans say they have reduced their meat intake, according to a survey lead by ProVeg International. The study asked over 7,500 people in ten European countries (Austria, Denmark, France, Germany, Italy, Netherlands, Poland, Romania, Spain, and the UK) about their attitudes towards plant-based foods and their current food consumption patterns.

This article studies the effects of a tax on sales of sugar-sweetened beverages (SSBs) and finds that it matters whether or not the tax is mentioned on the label. While a sugar tax alone had little effect on SSB sales on a university campus in San Francisco, adding the phrase “Includes SF Sugary Drink Tax” resulted in lower sales than when the tax was not mentioned. 

In this paper, TABLE member Philippa Simmonds analyses the debate around meat taxes in the UK, using media analysis and interviews with key stakeholders, and assesses how perspectives in the debate align with various political ideologies. 

A pilot of environmental labelling on selected food products is launching in the UK in September 2021. The aim of the pilot is to test consumer responses ahead of a roll-out across the UK and European Union in 2022. The scheme is run by UK non-profit Foundation Earth and supported by supermarkets and food brands including Marks & Spencer, Sainsbury’s, Co-op Food, Nestlé and Tyson Foods.