Activities and Outputs – Food Systems SPF

The programme will produce a variety of activities and outputs aiming to address health, environmental and social challenges.

For all updated activities and outputs, please visit the Transforming UK Food Systems website.

Food Systems Transformation: What’s in the policy toolbox

A Report for the UKRI Transforming UK Food Systems Programme

Policies have been described as the ‘control knobs’ that can be adjusted to achieve system change. Understanding which policies do, or could, influence food systems is therefore an important part of catalysing transformation.

But information about food systems policy levers tends to be fragmented across different policy sectors or disciplines, with no overarching picture of the available options and their relationships to one another. This research, published in October 2021, generated a map of policy levers organised by food supply chain segment and developed a taxonomy of broad types of policy lever. Because of the importance of considering the overall coherence of the policy approach to food systems, the project also explored the relationship between different policy levers. The findings begin to document in one place what we know about how these different food systems policy levers impact on one another, or ‘interact’, and where particular mixes, or ‘policy packages’ of levers are being used in combination.

Download the Full Report (PDF, 4 MB)

Download the Summary (PDF, 1 MB)

Download the Map of Policy Levers (PDF, 2 MB)

What would a transformational approach to Food Public Procurement look like?

A Report for the UKRI Transforming UK Food Systems Programme

This report, produced as part of a project to explore policy levers for food systems transformation, presents a case study on food public procurement (FPP), examined through the lens of food system transformation. The case study was developed by applying a ‘food systems approach’ to the policy lever of FPP to explore its potential role in food system transformation. The report describes: What the lever FPP is, and its relation to policy; Who makes FPP policy, using the example of England; Which food system activities FPP could transform; Which food system outcomes FPP could transform; Food system synergies and trade-offs related to FPP; Examples of FPP innovation from around the world; How this lever is connected to other policy levers.

It draws together these findings to propose an ideal-type model for food public procurement in a healthy and sustainable food system, where FPP is supported by a package of complimentary policy measures to maximise its transformative potential.

Download the Public Procurement Case Study Report (PDF, 3 MB)

Mapping the UK Food System

Mapping the UK Food System – A Report for the UKRI Transforming UK Food Systems Programme is the first report from the programme.

Cover of the report Mapping the UK Food System

The research, published in November 2020, draws together publicly available data sources, public documents and research articles to map and quantify the food system. The findings reveal the economic value of the UK food industry while highlighting number of negative outcomes in the current system. These include a heavy reliance on imports, skills shortages, poor working conditions, unsustainable production methods and diet-related disease.

Download the full report (PDF, 6.3MB)

Download the Executive Summary only (PDF, 1.6MB)

View the interactive tool