1. Timescales

• Team has almost completed consultations for report
• Used citizen juries to gauge thoughts on current food solutions, what change they would like to see and what the priorities for the future food system should be
• Henry has also had a number of 1;1s with food businesses as well as discussions at the Food Sector Council and other calls
• Report being drafted now, draft complete June and publication July

• Focus on two key areas health and sustainability
• Health -look at access to food, including offer across the sector, eg retail and hospiltality
• Health – assess progress of initiatives to date and what needs to change. May be a greater emphasis on regulation and certainly an attempt to improve food choices across all settings. Also focus on reduction of ultra-processed foods (team using FAO NOVA 4 classification)
• Sustainability – focus on carbon; reducing food waste, reducing meat consumption and greater focus on better production
• Team said aim is for recommendations to be reasonable enough to be adopted by Government but transformative enough to make a difference

 3 Existing policy

• Want to build on existing policy eg obesity strategy and suggest where more could be done
• Accept UK countries may have slightly different priorities for food strategy but are talking to Scotland and Wales and aiming for alignment
• New technology – I didn’t get a clear understanding of where they were with innovation and new technology ie gene editing
• I also said important to build on industry developments, both individual businesses and industry wide initiatives such as the BRC Climate Action Roadmap

 4 Engagement

• They were clearly bruised by recent criticism in the food media and are concerned about engagement which results in negative leaks
• I said we share the ambition of a progressive, more sustainable food system but we might differ on the pace and priorities of strategy which they accepted. We’d welcome
• I said it would be better to get retail reaction in a safe environment to see if recommendations could be nuanced. They agreed and suggested a call with members in June when the final report is drafted to gauge retail reaction to the key recommendations.