Britain’s growing addiction to unhealthy food is costing a ‘staggering’ £268 billion a year, far exceeding the budget for the entire NHS, the first research into the subject has found.
The increasing consumption of foods high in fat, salt and sugar or that are highly processed is having a “devastating” impact on human health and the UK’s finances.
“Rather than keeping us healthy, our current food system, with its excessive respect for what is colloquially known as ‘big food,’ is making us sick. The cost of controlling this disease is quickly becoming prohibitive,” the Food, Farming and Countryside Commission (FFCC) report said.
The figure of £268 billion has emerged from the first academic research into the total costs associated with Britain’s increasing consumption of food considered unhealthy under the government’s nutritional quality assessment system.
Of that, £92 billion is the price tag for the direct costs to the government of tackling the impact of what the FFCC calls “Britain’s unhealthy food system”. This includes expenditure by the NHS (£67.5 billion), social care services (£14.3 billion) and the social security system (£10.1 billion) to tackle diseases closely linked to diet, such as type 2 diabetes , heart problems and kidney disease.
The remaining £176.4 billion is the indirect cost of lost productivity of people too ill to work due to diet-related illness (£116.4 billion) and “human costs” such as pain and premature death (£60 billion) .
“The cost of £268 billion is staggering. I was shocked at how high it was when I got there,” said Prof Tim Jackson, an economist at the University of Surrey, who undertook the research for the FFCC. But he added: “£268 billion is a very, very conservative estimate of these costs.”
His findings will increase pressure on Keir Starmer to take tough action to limit consumption of unhealthy food and deliver on his promises to tackle Britain’s increasingly sick population and revive the crisis-hit NHS . Labor aims to ban smoking and has pledged to ban junk food advertising on TV before 9pm and the sale of energy drinks to under-16s.
Jackson’s calculations are based on his analysis of a range of publications and forecasts from the British government, international bodies such as the UN Food and Agriculture Organization and think tanks such as the Institute for Fiscal Studies and the Tony Blair Institute, covering government spending and the costs of treating chronic diseases, including those closely linked to poor nutrition.
So many people are eating unhealthy food that households across the UK would need to spend an extra £38 a week, a total of £57 billion a year, on food – on top of the £101.5 billion a year they already spend – to ensure that everyone followed the healthy diet described in the government’s Eatwell guide. This means a much greater intake of vegetables, fruit and fiber and much fewer chips, snacks and sauces.
But while that would force the richest households to spend a third more on food, it would require the poorest families to nearly double their weekly spending, raising questions about how realistic such expectations are amid widespread food insecurity and the crisis in the cost of living. .
Dr. Dolly van Tulleken, a Medical Research Council-funded obesity expert from the University of Cambridge, who contributed to the report, said: “These £268 billion costs show us that we have a food system that privatizes profits and damage from bad food socializes. It puts a price on the government’s failure, for more than thirty years, to regulate the major food chain.”
Sue Pritchard, the chief executive of the FFCC, urged ministers to introduce robust regulation of the food industry. Food companies have sacrificed consumers’ health because they have taken “the fast track to big profits” by using flavors, packaging and clever marketing tricks to encourage people to buy food that is harmful to their health, she said.
Ministers should consider giving vouchers to low-income households to buy UK-grown fruit and vegetables, and more support for farmers to produce food, she added.
The FFCC report also warns that:
The ultra-processed food market is expected to grow 8.4% annually over the next decade, above the 6.5% annual increase in overall food sales, despite fears about the health damage caused by UPFs.
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Expensive anti-obesity drugs such as Ozempic are “catastrophic for human health and disastrous for the country’s finances” because patients must take them for life to avoid relapse.
The increase in diet-related diseases in recent years reflects what Lord Ara Darzi called ‘a society in distress’ in his recent inquiry into the state of the NHS.
The Food and Drink Federation said it wanted to help alleviate diet-related illness.
“Obesity is a serious and complex problem affecting Britain,” a spokesperson said. “Food and drink manufacturers know they have a key role to play in tackling this. However, this is not a challenge that we can solve alone. That’s why we’d like to work with policymakers and others to help people eat healthier.
“Businesses have already made significant progress in creating healthier options for shoppers, based on government guidelines, and as a result our members’ products now contribute a quarter fewer calories, a quarter less sugar and a third less salt to the British supermarket market than they did in 2015.”
Health Secretary Wes Streeting said: “We simply cannot afford to do nothing as Britain spirals into an obesity crisis, costing the economy billions and putting even more pressure on the already overburdened NHS.
“We have already taken steps in our mission to tackle obesity by announcing plans to ban junk food adverts on TV and online and setting out our intention to ensure schools limit access to fast food. In addition, the government is reviewing the soft drinks industry levy (sugar tax) to ensure it remains effective in tackling obesity and other harms caused by high sugar intake.
“I am committed to moving from disease to prevention, and a healthy diet and lifestyle are crucial to achieving that. Building a healthy future for everyone is good for the NHS and good for the economy, so I am determined to get through this.”