Five-a-day eating targets for
fruit and vegetables could become unaffordable for millions of low-income
families as a result of Brexit-related food price rises, a report says.
The Food
Foundation says that already-feeble consumption rates of
healthy food in the UK could nosedive under Brexit because the
triple impact of exchange rates, labour costs and tariffs could add up to £158
a year to the amount a family of four spends on fruit and vegetables.
The thinktank warns that the
poorest families – which spend the biggest proportion of their household budget
on food – will be hardest hit, and calls for an expanded healthy food voucher
system to help boost household nutrition in deprived areas.
Attempts by the Department of
Health to encourage people to eat more fruit and vegetables – a key
strand of its strategy to reduce the burden on the NHS of diet-related illness,
such as obesity – would be undermined by Brexit food price rises, the report
adds.
“Inflation resulting from
unfavourable exchange rates, the rising costs of seasonal labour and a heavy
tariff bill resulting from a ‘no-deal Brexit’ scenario combine to mean that
purchasing a variety of fruit and vegetables on a daily basis could become
unaffordable for millions of British households,” it says.
Currently just 8% of children
aged 11-18 achieve government targets of consuming five portions of fruit and
vegetables a day. Just 27% of adults aged 10-64 reach the five-a-day benchmark,
as do 35% of adults over the age of 64, the report says.
The warning comes amid rising concerns over the nutritional
impact of austerity measures and welfare cuts on the poorest families.
The UK has the second highest
rates of food insecurity in Europe, with about 4 million adults struggling to
put healthy food on the table on a regular basis.
Earlier this year, Food Standards
Agency (FSA) data showed that 17% of UK adults
worried about food supplies running out before they had enough money to buy
more, while 8% said they experienced hunger or went whole days without eating
because of a lack of money.
Under a no-deal Brexit, the price of achieving five
portions-a-day for a typical family of four would go up from £37.58 a week to
£39.76 a week (from £1,954 a year to £2,067).
The cost for that family of
consuming at least seven portions a day – as recommended by health
experts – would be £2,894 a year. Meeting that target would
account for almost half of the entire food budget of the poorest 10% of the
population, the foundation says.
Eating at least five portions of
fruit and vegetables a day is associated with reduced risk of heart disease, stroke
and cancer. In the UK, the poorest families are significantly more likely not to
achieve the targets than wealthier households.
The foundation estimates that at
least 33 of the UK’s 50 most popular fruit and vegetables would be directly
affected by new trade rules with the EU. Almost half of all vegetables and 83%
of fruit is imported, while homegrown produce is highly dependent on EU migrant
labour.
Policy measures to increase
production of homegrown fruit and vegetables such as apples, broccoli,
cauliflower, mushrooms, spinach and tomatoes could ease the impact on UK
household food budgets, it says.
It calls on the government to
invest in horticultural production by:
- Putting in place measures to secure seasonal
labour.
- Offering capital grants to farmers to expand
production of key crops.
- Introducing guidance to ensure British-grown
fruit and vegetables are prominent in meals served in schools, hospitals
and jails.
“The government faces a clear
choice to boost British harvests of fruit and veg or the NHS will reap the
consequences,” said Anna Taylor, the chief executive officer of the Food
Foundation.
The foundation is an independent
thinktank set up by former Conservative MP Laura Sandys.
Source: Guardian