The UK is not growing or importing enough fruit or vegetables to provide everyone with five portions a day, according to new stats.
As it is, only one in ten children and one in three adults are meeting the government’s recommended five, 80-gram servings of fruit and vegetables a day.
If everyone met this requirement, life expectancy would increase by eight months on average – and diet-related greenhouse gas emissions would fall by more than 8%.
Now, the global research group, Sustainably and Healthy Food Systems (SHEFS) has found that even if the amount of waste in the UK wasn’t considered, the UK would need to produce or import 9% more fruit and vegetables to meet the country’s requirements.
More than 80% of our fruit supply and almost half of our vegetables comes from imported varieties which cannot be grown in the UK, because consumers have moved away from home-grown foods like peas and carrots in recent years.
But, as the charity Food Foundation pointed out, this makes the UK particularly vulnerable to extreme weather changes felt all over the world, brought on by the climate crisis.
Food is also become one of the most inflated items in our supermarkets since the cost of living crisis has seen day-to-day necessities soar in price.
As SHEFS pointed out, the hike in prices for fruit and vegetables is also adding to the already sizeable health gap between rich and poor.
Between October 2021 and 2022, the price of fruit rose by more than 10% and vegetables by more than 15%.
Healthier foods are nearly three times as expensive per calorie as less healthy foods, which is why consumers tend to move towards the less nutritious when bank accounts are squeezed.
Budgets are already so stretched due to the climbing costs of energy bills that these essential food groups have dropped off the shopping list.
Even prior to the cost of living crisis, the highest income groups consumed around 1.5 more portions per day compared to those on the lowest incomes.
SHEFS has suggested boosting domestic fruit and veg supply urgently, to prevent the UK suffering from future climate events.
The research group, led by the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, funded by the Wellcome Trust’s Our Planet, Our Health Programme, and in partnership with organisations all over the world, also wants taxpayer-funded meals in schools, hospitals, prisons and government offices to include two portions of vegetables.
It also considered increasing TV and online advertising about fruit and vegetables, while providing the greater protection of low-income consumers (like the free school meals programme).