This policy insight from the UK’s Food Research Collaboration argues that the 2021 Independent Review for the National Food Strategy failed to address the specific nutritional needs of babies and young children. The report identifies eight policy recommendations, including supporting women who wish to breastfeed, regulating the composition, labelling and marketing of foods aimed at young children, and reforming the Healthy Start scheme.

This book describes the extent and causes of “holiday hunger” in the UK, faced by up to three million children when free school meals are not available. It reviews responses to holiday hunger, including holiday clubs where children can eat for free during school holidays. 

This report from the United Nations Food Systems Summit synthesises the results of preparatory dialogues held by 11 UN Member States, as of 13 April 2021. The dialogues are designed to bring together a range of stakeholders in national food systems to discuss the issues faced by governments in promoting sustainable food.

The Global Nutrition Report has an interactive “Nutrition for Growth Commitment Tracker” where you can track progress made by a variety of stakeholders on their commitments towards ending malnutrition, made as part of the Nutrition for Growth summit. Stakeholders include national governments, donors, businesses, civil society organisations and the United Nations.

This paper reviews the effectiveness of government obesity policies in England for the period 1992 to 2020. It finds that these policies have tended to rely on the behaviour changes of individuals and avoid more interventionist approaches, that governments do not regularly assess the effectiveness of past obesity strategies, and that obesity has not become less prevalent despite 14 different obesity strategies being published over the period of study.

This paper examines the global nutrition transition and argues that coordinated action is necessary to reduce household food waste, decrease consumption of animal-source foods, limit the prevalence of overweight and eliminate hunger.

This report from the EAT Forum examines current food consumption patterns and finds that most national dietary guidelines do not integrate both health and environmental sustainability. It finds that halving food-related greenhouse gas emissions in G20 countries by 2050 would contribute towards equitably feeding 10 billion people within planetary boundaries.

This book introduces readers without a background in law to the US laws and regulations that affect the food system, covering environmental, health and agricultural law.

Professor Corinna Hawkes, Director of the Centre for Food Policy at City, University of London, has launched a new blog called The Better Food Journey. In this blog post, Hawkes discusses the complexities of regulating the marketing of unhealthy food, noting that without advertising, food companies may instead try to compete by cutting prices or adding sugar. The blog post is topical since in July 2020 the UK government announced new restrictions on the advertising of foods high in fat, sugar and salt.