Investors back mandatory food business reporting on sales of healthy and sustainable food

Last week a coalition of investors representing over £3.8 trillion in assets wrote to the Prime Minister backing a Food Bill containing mandatory reporting on nutrition and sustainability for larger food sector businesses. This was a recommendation of the National Food Strategy which argued that the issues facing the food industry are too wide-ranging and complex for individual companies to effectively address in isolation.

The letter, co-ordinated by Sustain members the Food Foundation, favoured “well-designed regulation” on the grounds that it “creates an essential enabling environment for businesses seeking to build long-term thinking and sustainability into their business models.”

It also recognised the "risks and opportunities" facing the food industry such as food waste, nutrition and sustainable supply chains but said that “how companies respond to these issues and to the changing regulatory, consumer and other stakeholder demands surrounding them will influence not only their social licence to operate but also the long-term resilience of their operating models and supply chains.”

There was recognition of some companies reporting voluntarily but the letter flagged “a notable lack of consistency in how metrics are being reported and some sectors are further behind.” It pointed out that “a lack of published data on food industry practices is hindering the ability of investors and other stakeholders to compare performance across the sector and accurately understand what progress is being made.”

You can read the letter in full on the Food Foundation website.

You can read Sustain chief executive Kath Dalmeny's case for a Food Bill here