Research points to 27 action areas to transform UK food system

A UK Research and Innovation (UKRI) investment has published new evidence and a synthesis of 27 action areas that will help make the nation’s food healthier, fairer and greener.

The actions, grouped under five themes, appear alongside 12 peer-reviewed papers in a ‘Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B’ special issue published on 18 September 2025.

Launched in 2021 with a £47.5 million UKRI Strategic Priorities Fund investment, the Transforming UK Food Systems programme backs:

• 16 multi-stakeholder research projects involving 40 higher education institutes and more than 200 public, private and third sector partners
• a centre for doctoral training hosting 56 students across three cohorts
• a cross-cutting synthesis to inform policy and practice through to 2026

The mission of the five-year programme is to transform the UK food system by placing healthy people and a healthy natural environment at its centre.

Detailed in the final chapter of the journal are 27 recommendations for action, captured as part of five overarching themes, including the following.

These include:

• support independent agronomic advice
• ‘lighthouse’ farms
• long-term (10-year plus) evidence on environmental and financial outcomes

These include:

• incentivise UK pulses
• legislate for mandatory redistribution of surplus and waste food
• back place-based logistics and digital platforms

These include:

• scale supermarket interventions
• expand vouchers
• standardise simple health-and-environment labels
• reformulate menus in public sector catering

These include:

• strengthen social enterprise models
• rebalance supply-chain power toward producers
• make co-production the norm in local decision-making

These include:

• apply systems approaches to public procurement
• improve national-local delivery
• explore a cross-government food systems body and an open evidence centre

Some of the programme’s highlights, which could offer timely evidence and recommendations for consideration as the government’s food strategy develops, include the following.

Trials show children accept higher-fibre bread when it’s offered. Simple tweaks could help close the around 6g average ‘fibre gap’ in UK school children’s intake.

Expand voucher schemes for low-income households to improve access to affordable, healthy and more sustainable options.

A new ‘Sus-Health Index’ could standardise and simplify food labelling to provide a pragmatic indicator of a food or meal’s combined nutritional and environmental value to guide shoppers.

Move from guidance to legislation so usable waste food is redistributed by default to disadvantaged groups, potentially helping thousands of families.

Smartly swapping dishes on menus could cut carbon emissions from meals by around 19.5% and reduce saturated fat by around 15.7% across NHS sites.

Incentivise British beans and peas which are healthier, climate-friendly and offer a boost for UK farmers.

Professor Guy Poppy, Director of the UKRI Transforming UK Food Systems programme and Pro Vice-Chancellor for Research and Innovation at the University of Bristol, said:

Food is at the heart of our health, our environment and our economy.

These recommendations show the UK can act now, with practical steps that make food fairer, greener and more resilient.

Getting food right can help address some of the biggest challenges of our times, increasing productivity, reducing climate change and tackling obesity.

Professor Anjali Goswami, Fellow of the Royal Society and Chief Scientific Advisor at the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, said:

We have welcomed the opportunity to work with UKRI throughout the development and delivery of this cutting-edge research programme.

The programme highlights the importance of research in understanding the complexities of the food system, and we look forward to engaging further as we continue to develop implementation plans for the food strategy.

Food drives health outcomes, contributes to climate and nature pressures and shapes lives and livelihoods.

The programme’s place-based, co-produced evidence offers practical routes for governments, retailers, caterers and communities to act now while building capacity for long-term systems change.

The ambitious Transforming UK Food Systems programme has five main goals:

• help people in the UK eat diets that are both healthier and better for the planet
• support changes in behaviour across the food system, from farmers and manufacturers to retailers and consumers
• join up research on how food is produced, sold and eaten so that healthier choices also support sustainable farming
• bring researchers and food system stakeholders together to design solutions side by side
• train the next generation of experts who can take a big-picture, cross-disciplinary view of the food system

The programme brings together researchers, policymakers, businesses, charities and communities to co-develop practical solutions that can make a real difference.

By working in this way, the programme aims to deliver a food system that works better for people, the economy and the planet.

One that is healthy, fair and sustainable.

Read the ‘Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B’ special edition