Recent trends in UK food consumption
Peter Jackson1
Summary
This paper summarises recent trends in UK food consumption, with reference to the wider
European context and growing concerns about food security at the global scale. Focusing
on the last 20 years, the review discusses changes in what and where we eat, questioning
the evidence on which popular accounts of the decline of the ‘family meal’ are based. It
shows how changes in food consumption within the home are related to changes in family
and household composition. It challenges current assertions about the alleged deficit of
cooking skills which often take a highly gendered and moralised position. The paper
examines the rise of ‘convenience’ food and emphasises the diversity of this growing
sector. It describes recent changes in food governance and regulation in the UK and
concludes by analysing the ethical challenges which consumers face in relation to an
increasingly globalised agri-food system, including the current and future imperative to
reduce food waste.
The global context
The world’s population is expected to reach 9 billion by 2050, putting unprecedented
pressure on existing resources and posing critical questions in terms of environmental
sustainability and future food security.2 The UK Government’s former Chief Scientific
Advisor, Sir John Beddington, referred to a ‘perfect storm’ of conditions that are
combining to threaten future food security including climate change, population increase
and the growing pressure on water and energy resources in the period following ‘peak oil’.
These pressures were signalled by the rapid increase in agricultural commodity prices in
2007-8 which led the UN Secretary General to declare that the world is facing its worst
1
Peter Jackson is Professor of Human Geography at the University of Sheffield. He has directed
several research projects on food consumption funded by the Economic and Social Research Council (Cultures
of Consumption, 2003-7), the Leverhulme Trust (Changing Families, Changing Food, 2005-8), the European
Research Council (Consumer Culture in an ‘Age of Anxiety’, 2009-12) and the ERA-Net sustainable food
programme (Food, Convenience and Sustainability, 2014-17). Recent publications include Changing Families,
Changing Food (Palgrave-Macmillan, 2009), Food Words (Bloomsbury, 2013) and The Handbook of Food
Research (Bloomsbury, 2013, co-edited with Anne Murcott and Warren Belasco). Thanks to Dr Polly Russell for
her comments on an earlier draft of this paper.
2
Food security is defined by the UN Food and Agriculture Organization as existing ‘when all people, at
all times, have physical and economic access to sufficient, safe and nutritious food that meets their dietary
needs and food preferences for an active and healthy life’ (FAO, World Food Summit, 1996).
1
food crisis in a generation. While food security has conventionally been seen as a
‘development discourse’, of most concern to those in the Global South, it is increasingly
seen as a relevant issue for people in the Global North. Under pressure to encourage
healthier diets and more sustainable modes of consumption, countries like the UK are
facing a major increase in ‘over- consumption’ (with predictions of a rapid rise in the
number of those diagnosed as clinically obese) while, at the same time, growing numbers
face emergency food shortages or longer-term malnutrition.3
Key drivers
A recent paper on global food consumption trends (Kearney 2010) summarised the key
drivers as changing incomes, urbanization levels, trade liberalization, the role of
transnational food corporations, retail concentration, food marketing and changing
consumer attitudes and behaviour. Retail concentration is particularly high in the UK,
where around three-quarters of groceries are purchased from the ‘big four’ supermarkets
(see Figure 1).
Figure 1: UK retail concentration
source: Cabinet Office (2008), based on research by the Institute of Grocery Distribution
Kearney (2010) predicts significant increases in the consumption of organic foods
(emphasising improved environmental standards and animal welfare), functional foods
(which claim health benefits beyond their basic nutritional value) and genetically-modified
3
Recent Foresight reports predict that UK obesity levels, measured in terms of a Body Mass Index
of >30kg/m², will rise to 40% by 2025 and to 60% by 2050 (Cabinet Office, 2010). Meanwhile, The Guardian
reports that ‘Food banks struggle to feed hungry as demand rises’ (7 May 2013).
2
foods (especially in countries like Brazil and China). Changing patterns of consumption in
the ‘emerging economies’ are also likely to put further pressure on global food security as
the rapid growth in the number of middle-class consumers in these countries leadto
increased demand for meat and dairy products in what some have called a ‘nutrition
transition’ (Popkin 1999, 2006).
Consumer anxieties about food
While food remains a source of pleasure for many consumers, it also gives rise to high
levels of reported anxiety. Eurobarometer data, for example, reveal that almost 80% of
European citizens are concerned about food safety and more than two-thirds are
concerned about the quality and freshness of food. Concerns about food safety are higher
in the UK than the European average, possibly reflecting the legacy of BSE (‘mad cow
disease’), with less than two-thirds (59%) of UK respondents feeling that food is safer
today than ten years ago (see Table 1). These high levels of reported anxiety do not
always translate into practice even among those who have the resources to exercise a
reasonable level of ‘consumer choice’. Food and eating practices are deeply embedded in
people’s social and domestic routines such that they are often highly resistant to change.
The gaps between consumer knowledge and behaviour, and between reported behaviour
and actual practice, are notoriously difficult to overcome as has been realised by
successive governments who have pursued a ‘behaviour change’ agenda.
Table 1: Consumer attitudes to food
%
%
%
%
%
%
%
%
%
%
%
concerned about food safety
concerned about global food security
concerned about animal welfare
concerned about the quality and freshness of food
with confidence in national/EU food safety agencies
who feel that food is safer than ten years ago
concerned about geographical origin of food
concerned about avian influenza (‘bird flu’)
concerned about GM food
expressing confidence in supermarkets
concerned that food may damage their health
source: Eurobarometer (2010, 2012)
EU
79
76
64
68
64
42
65
60
66
36
48
UK
84
74
67
66
65
59
52
50
48
46
29
In terms of the step change in consumer behaviour that will be required to deliver a
healthier and more sustainable food system, concerns have been expressed over the
complexity and lack of clarity of current food labelling systems with a proliferation of useby, display-until and best-before date labels as well as a multitude of labels indicating
3
environmental and animal welfare standards such as Red Tractor and Certified Organic (cf.
Milne 2012). More generally, a crisis of consumer confidence has been observed as
consumers have lost trust in an increasingly globalized agri-food system (Kjaernes et al.
2007). The Curry Commission report on the future of British food and farming concluded
that the present system was ‘dysfunctional’ as a result of the growing disconnection
between the different actors involved along the supply chain (Policy Commission on the
Future of Food and Farming 2002).
What and where we eat
According to data from DEFRA, there has been a long-term decline in the consumption of
milk, fresh meat and potatoes over the period 1977-2007 (Cabinet Office 2008). A growth
in positive attitudes towards ‘healthy eating’ does not seem to have been matched by
actual spending patterns, where the purchase of fruit and vegetables has fallen from its
peak in 2005-6. The fall in fruit and vegetable consumption has been highest among
poorer households, reflecting the impact of the recent recession.4 In 2012, the average
family spent 11.6% of its household budget on food, rising to 16.6% for those on the lowest
incomes (DEFRA 2013). The downward trend in family expenditure on milk and cream,
meat, fish, potatoes, bread and biscuits continues, with average consumption of whole
milk falling from >1000ml/person/week in the 1990s to <500 ml/person/week in 2010.
Changes in household expenditure on different types of food over the last twenty years
are shown in Table 2.
Table 2: UK household food purchases (average quantity per person per week)
Milk and milk products (ml)
Carcase meat (g)
Non-carcase meat (g)
Fish (g)
Fat (g)
Sugar and preserves (g)
Fruit and vegetables (g)
Bread (g)
1984
1994
2526
2265
348
250
722
732
140
148
300
235
381
224
3332
3284
935
820
source: DEFRA (2013)
2004
1996
229
820
158
182
134
3096
695
2011
1904
204
794
147
170
126
2986
621
In a recent article on ‘The British at Table’, The Economist (27 July 2013) concluded that
ever since the 1970s, Britons have cut back drastically on green vegetables and have
turned to ready meals, convenience meat products, pizza and salty snacks such as crisps
4
‘Fruit and vegetable consumption by poorer families falls by 30%, figures show’ (The Guardian, 22
January 2012).
4
in ever greater numbers. The declining consumption of certain vegetables such as
cabbage and Brussels sprouts has been particularly rapid (with sprout consumption falling
by more than four-fifths since 1974).
Eating outside the home has seen a continued increase in expenditure (despite consumers
reporting that they have eaten out less in the last six months for financial reasons).
According to the Food and You survey, for example, 75% of respondents reported that they
had eaten out in the last seven days, compared to 69% in 2010 (FSA 2013), while
expenditure on take-away food has risen by 11% since 2009 (DEFRA 2013).5 The Food and
You survey also found that younger people were more likely to eat out than older people
and that those on higher incomes and with higher levels of education were more likely to
eat out than poorer households and those with lower education levels. This is consistent
with earlier research on variations in eating out by social class and age (Heald 1987,
Warde & Martens 2000).
Changing meal times
While there have been major shifts in the pattern of meal times within British households
over the last few decades, the significance of these changes is harder to identify.
Evidence from time-use diaries (Cheng et al. 2007) shows a very clear shift (see Figure 2).6
In the 1960s, there was a clear pattern of three or four regular meals a day, when most
people had breakfast, lunch and dinner at similar times, with an additional meal taken by
some people later in the evening. By the 2000s, the pattern of meal times was much less
regular with people eating more frequently and at different times in the day. Often
referred to as ‘snacking’ or ‘grazing’, these patterns have been associated with an alleged
decline of family eating, including much debate about the supposed demise of the ‘family
meal’.7
5
Food and You is a representative survey of the UK’s adult population, conducted by the Food
Standards Agency.
6
Cheng et al. (2007) argue that while there has been an overall decline in the amount of time people
spend eating and drinking at home (from 71 minutes/day in 1975 to 56 minutes/day in 2000), this pattern of
decline is not confirmed by their analysis of episode data which measure the duration of eating events where
the evidence shows ‘remarkable stability’ since 1975 (ibid.: 47). Indeed, the evidence suggests that people
may actually be spending slightly longer per eating episode at home than 25 years ago, with 87 percent of athome eating and drinking events lasting no more than 30 minutes in 1975 compared to 83 percent in 2000.
7
Similar views are widespread across Europe. Compare, for example, Bugge and Almås’s (2006)
discussion of the ‘disintegration of a daily ritual’ in their account of the domestic dinner in Norway with
Helene Brembeck’s (2005) account of family dinners in Sweden which shows their resilience to commercial
pressure from outlets such as McDonald’s.
5
Figure 2: Changing UK meal times, 1961-2001
Percentage of people eating or drinking inside or outside the home at different times of day
source: Cabinet Office (2008), based on research by the Futures Foundation
Though based on rather thin evidence, the alleged decline of family meals has been linked
to a range of social problems including an increase in eating disorders and a rise in
childhood obesity, drug abuse and alcoholism (BBC News Online, 2 October 2006). One
national newspaper (The Independent on Sunday) ran a campaign in 2006 to ‘save our
Sunday lunch’. As part of this campaign, Richard Corrigan commented that ‘It’s so
important that we sit around the table with our families for a proper meal at least once a
week … Sunday is a very important day … and Sunday lunch is a big part of that – it’s
sacred’ (11 June 2006). Jonathan Thompson referred to Sunday lunch as a ‘centuries-old
tradition’ that was now in rapid decline. ‘As recently as a generation ago’, he wrote,
‘British families sat together for a meal nearly every day, but today a quarter of us don’t
even have a dining table’. Restaurateur Oliver Peyton called the Sunday meal a sacred
thing while chef Christophe Novelli referred to Sunday lunch as a great tradition that it
would be sacrilege to lose (5 March 2006).
Social scientists have been writing about the social significance of ‘family meals’ for many
years (cf. Charles & Kerr 1988, Murcott 1983, 2000). However, the evidence of long-term
decline is far from well-established. Using oral history data from the Edwardian period,
for example, Jackson et al. (2009a) show that eating together at home has been a middleclass aspiration for over a century though it has not been widely achieved in practice,
varying by geographical region and social class, and subject to the vicissitudes of shiftwork and other pressures on everyday family life. Writing in the context of an ESRC6
funded research programme which she directed (The Nation’s Diet, 1992-98), Anne
Murcott (1997) questioned the evidential basis on which many social commentators relied
when suggesting that the family meal was in terminal decline. She argued that a family
meal, eaten together with family members sitting round the table at the same time, might
be an ideal to which many people aspire but that there was a big gap between actuality
and aspiration. Sociological evidence also suggests that the amount of time families spend
eating together may have decreased less than is frequently assumed if eating outside the
home is included in the analysis (cf. Warde & Martens 2000).
Changing patterns of food consumption inside and outside the home reflect changes in
family and household composition with increasing numbers of single-person households
and growing numbers of same-sex and cohabiting couples (with and without children).
Married couples with dependent children living in the same household now make up just
over 25% of the total number of UK families though, arguably, the conventional ‘nuclear
family’ remains an ideal-type in much of the public discourse about families and food (cf.
Jackson 2009) (see Table 3).
Table 3: Family and household composition, 2001-2011 (in thousands)
Married couples
Civil partners
Cohabiting couples
(opposite sex)
Cohabiting couples
(same sex)
Lone parent family
All families
With
dependent
children
4,833
2001
Without
dependent
children
7,447
12,280
With
dependent
children
4,514
2011
Without
dependent
children
7,505
808
1,321
2,129
5
1,097
54
1,755
59
2,853
44
45
3
60
63
Total
families
1,745
767
2,512
1,958
925
7,386
9,580
16,966
7,576
10,299
source: UK Census, Families and Households (2001 and 2011)
Total
families
12,018
2,883
17,875
Cooking skills and gender roles
In January 2013, UK public health minister Anna Soubry decried the culture of TV dinners
which she blamed for the erosion of family life, also deploring the habit of taking lunch at
the office desk as bad for your health (Daily Telegraph 23 January 2013). Like the debate
over the decline of the ‘family meal’, the evidence for these assertions is far from clear.
Criticisms over the alleged decline of domestic cooking skills have been voiced at least
since the nineteenth century when Friedrich Engels commented on the large number of
7
women in Manchester who had never learned to cook (Engels 1845, quoted in The
Economist, 27 July 2013). According to a recent survey of 4000 UK households by Kantar
Worldpanel, Britons now spend around half of the time preparing meals that they did 20
years ago (34 minutes in 2012 compared to an hour in 1980).8 The same source reported
that around 1.6 billion ready meals are consumed in the UK each year, compared to
around 1.2 billion roasted meals, while 7 million TV viewers watched the Great British
Bake Off. The implication is that people are cooking less while watching more cooking
programmes on television.9
But much depends on what constitutes ‘cooking’ and whether processes like reheating
prepared food in the microwave can be regarded as a skilled practice, similar in kind if not
in degree to the skills involved in cooking fresh ingredients ‘from scratch’. Frances Short
(2006) suggests that recent assertions about the inter-generational decline of cooking
skills are based on scant evidence. Her own ethnographic work leads her to question the
conventional analysis of ‘deskilling’ and to recognise a range of specific skills involved in
domestic cooking (including mechanical, perceptual, conceptual, academic and planning
skills).
With no definitive evidence on these issues, social commentators have been quick to
identify a current deficit of cooking skills, particularly among working-class women,
compared to earlier generations who were taught to cook by their mothers or in domestic
science lessons at school (Meah & Watson 2011). Celebrity chefs like Jamie Oliver have
contributed to the debate, offering to ‘teach a town to cook’ by passing on basic cooking
skills and a repertoire of simple recipes through his Ministry of Food in Rotherham. Critics
have questioned the extent to which such TV programmes and associated campaigns
‘blame the victim’ rather than focusing on more systemic issues of deprivation and
inequality, pathologising working-class mothers as occurred in previous TV series such as
Jamie’s School Dinners where women in Rawmarsh (near Rotherham) were disparaged as
‘sinner ladies’ for defying the local school’s attempt to improve the quality of school
meals (Fox & Smith 2011, Rich 2011).
There is growing evidence that British men are participating more fully in cooking and
other forms of domestic labour as is occurring in other Western countries (Bianchi et al.
2000, Sullivan 2000, Aarseth 2009). UK time-use studies suggest that men’s total domestic
work-time has increased from around 90 minutes per day in the 1960s to 148 minutes per
8
‘Can’t cook, won’t cook Britain’ (The Daily Mail, 27 March 2014).
‘Can’t cook, won’t cook – Britons stew in front of the TV instead of on the hob’ (The Guardian, 27
March 2014).
9
8
day in the early 2000s, with time spent cooking, cleaning and doing the laundry increasing
from c.20 minutes/day in the 1960s to c.50 minutes/day in the 2000s (Kan et al. 2011).
While this may signal the emergence of new forms of ‘domestic masculinity’, following the
lead of ‘celebrity chefs’ such as Jamie Oliver (Hollows 2003), in other cases men’s
involvement in cooking may be seen as a ‘lifestyle choice’ or leisure activity, restricted to
weekends and special occasions. Men still rarely engage fully in the routine work of
‘feeding the family’ which continues to be seen as ‘women’s work’ (cf. De Vault 1991).
Ethnographic evidence also suggests that men’s entry into the domestic kitchen is not
universally welcome, rendering such spaces ‘crowded’ or ‘uncanny’ as the power
relations within such familiar environments becomes destabilised (Meah & Jackson 2013,
see also Metcalfe et al. 2009).
Convenience food
The rapid growth in the consumption of ‘convenience’ food has given rise to serious
concerns about public health, often framed in terms of disparaging comparisons with
‘proper meals’ (cooked from scratch using fresh ingredients) and implied moral judgments
(as in popular references to ‘junk’ food). In practice, however, the ‘convenience’ sector
is extremely diverse with a wide array of foods in frozen, chilled and other formats.
Similar diversity applies to the way consumers use ‘convenience’ foods, often combining
them with fresh ingredients, leading Marshall and Bell (2003: 62) to conclude that
‘convenience’ foods and ‘homemade’ foods belong to a continuum rather than to two
separate categories. Similarly, Warde (1999: 519) argues that ‘convenience’ is not just a
set of properties of specific food items but also a matter of social context. Empirical
evidence shows how mothers negotiate the discourse of ‘convenience’, managing their
children’s food choices to conform to the conventions of ‘proper’ food while embracing
the convenience of ready-meals (Carrigan et al. 2006). Generational differences in the
acceptability of ‘convenience’ food have also been reported (Moisio et al. 2004). The
growth in demand for ‘convenience’ food can be understood in terms of its ability to meet
the needs of modern households including the changing routines and rhythms associated
with increased female labour-force participation, enabled by technological innovations
such as microwave cooking.10
10
The Food and You survey reports that 93% of UK consumers currently have access to a microwave
oven (FSA 2013).
9
These trends are set to continue, with predictions of a 70% growth in the takeaway and
convenience food sector over the next fifteen years (Future Foundation 2006). The
consumption of ‘convenience’ food continues to grow both in terms of volume and
variation of goods (Jabs & Devine 2006, Olsen et al. 2009, Warde et al. 2007). Existing
knowledge of the sector includes quantitative studies of how much and when consumers
use ‘convenience’ products as well as the diffusion of consumer attitudes to ‘convenience’
food in different populations (cf. Ahlgren et al. 2005, Marshall & Bell 2003, Olsen et al.
2009). Research also includes qualitative studies which cover consumer understandings
and incorporation of ‘convenience’ foods within the household (e.g. Bugge & Almås 2006,
Hand & Shove 2007, Moisio et al. 2004). Research is increasingly focusing on the way
consumers understand ‘convenience’ food in terms of more sustainable and healthier
alternatives (e.g. Connolly and Prothero 2008, Bassett et al. 2008).
There are also several studies of maternal attitudes to ‘convenience’ foods and the
challenges such foods pose for culturally approved notions of motherhood (e.g. Carrigan &
Szmigin 2006, Carrigan et al. 2006, Bava et al. 2008). For example, processed baby food is
rarely marketed as ‘convenience’ food and research has focused on the symbolic meaning
mothers attach to such products as well as the pressures mothers feel from discourses of
mothering and risk (e.g. Afflerback et al. 2013, Cairns et al.2013, Cook 2009).
Governance and regulation
According to Barling and Lang (2003), successive British governments have been reluctant
to formulate a systematic approach to the governance of the agri-food system with
regulatory responsibilities currently spread across several departments (including DEFRA,
DH and FSA) and with different arrangements applying in Scotland and Northern Ireland
from those that apply in England and Wales. DEFRA’s Food 2030 report (DEFRA 2010)
identified six priority areas for food and farming: enabling and encouraging people to eat
a healthy, sustainable diet; ensuring a resilient, profitable and competitive food system;
increasing food production sustainably; reducing the food system’s greenhouse gas
emissions; reducing, reusing and reprocessing waste; and increasing the impact of skills,
knowledge, research and technology. These policy priorities were underpinned by a
Foresight project on The Future of Food and Farming (2011) and by the Cabinet Office’s
Food Matters report (2010). Despite promising initiatives such as DEFRA’s Green Food
Project, there has been little sign of the ‘more joined-up food policy’ that was called for
in the Food 2030 report (2010: 4). In terms of the promotion of ‘healthy eating’, for
10
example, a series of separate initiatives has been pursued (from Healthy Start to Change 4
Life), alongside separate campaigns by the major retailers (such as Tesco’s Eat Happy
initiative and Morrison’s Let’s Grow campaign).
Despite the government’s claim that ‘The food we eat in the UK is the safest it has ever
been’ (DEFRA 2010: 12), consumer confidence has been repeatedly undermined by a series
of ‘food scares’ and farming crisis, and foodborne disease continues to pose a significant
threat to public health. Cases of Listeria, for example, have more than doubled since
2000 and Campylobacter from infected poultry flocks is currently responsible for around
460,000 cases of food poisoning, 22,000 hospitalisations and 110 deaths each year.
Celebrity chefs have added their voice to recent food-related debates, including Jamie
Oliver’s campaigns to improve the quality of school meals and domestic cooking skills (in
Jamie’s School Meals and Jamie’s Ministry of Food), Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall’s
campaigns about intensive chicken production (in Hugh’s Chicken Run) and the combined
efforts of Jamie Oliver, Heston Blumenthal and Gordon Ramsay to encourage more
sustainable fishing (in The Big Fish Fight). Consumers are now exposed to a vast array of
TV programmes about food, with celebrity chefs acting as important cultural
intermediaries on food-related matters (cf. Rousseau 2012).
Much of the emphasis in current government policy has been on encouraging consumers to
make ‘informed choices’ based on a better understanding of the implications of their
dietary decisions. But, as Food 2030 acknowledged, consumers’ choices are constrained
by their limited time and knowledge, and by considerations of cost, convenience and
retail offers (DEFRA 2010: 47). An emphasis on consumer choice and individualised
responsibility is therefore only a partial approach to a problem with more systemic roots
as has been acknowledged by those who challenge the existence of a linear connection
between consumer attitudes and behaviour (cf. Shove 2010).
Public confidence in food supply chains, particularly at the cheaper end of the market, has
been shaken (as demonstrated in recent consumer research conducted by Harris
Interactive for the FSA).11 Regulators are under increasing pressure to implement more
stringent quality controls and traceability will be of increasing importance for food
producers, retailers and manufacturers. For consumers with sufficient cultural and
financial capital, such scares are likely to lead them to purchase more organic, free range
and Fairtrade products and to favour smaller suppliers whose commitment to high quality
standards and clearly-stated provenance are likely to provide a competitive advantage.
11
Harris Interactive undertook their consumer research in two waves (in February and August 2013).
The reports are available on the FSA website: http://www.food.gov.uk/ (accessed 28 March 2014).
11
Those with fewer resources will have less opportunity to exercise choice over what they
consumer. Further pressure is also likely from consumers and government in terms of
reducing the salt, fat and sugar content of foods as has been seen with recent calls to
reduce the amount of added sugar in processed food and drink in order to address
concerns about obesity and diabetes.12
Recent increases in global grain prices and growing pressure on water supplies have
resulted in rising costs in almost every area of food production. While trust in cheaper
foods has been shaken, necessity will drive an increasing number of consumers to look for
bargains in ‘deep discount’ stores like Aldi, Lidl and Netto, while middle-class consumers
are likely to use these stores to purchase ‘luxury’ products like olive oil, parmesan cheese
and wine which are notably cheaper than those sold in ‘mainstream’ supermarkets.
Consumer ethics and the ‘quality turn’
One reaction to the increasing intensification and globalization of agri-food systems
(Goodman & Watts 1997) has been a turn to more local, seasonal and high-quality foods
(Goodman 2003). The UK has seen an increase in farmers’ markets and other forms of
alternative food networks (AFNs) with an emphasis of reducing ‘food miles’ and promoting
locally-grown, organic and artisan goods (Maye et al. 2011). Morgan et al. (2006) contrast
a dominant ‘neo-liberal economy’ with what they call a ‘new moral economy’ of food,
characterised by a concerns for health, well-being, fair trade and more equitable
economic development. Lang (2009) notes a similar series of ‘quality’ issues in terms of
the development of taste, seasonality, localness and fresh food and in relation to
questions of identity and authenticity.
While the UK market for Fairtrade and other self-consciously ‘ethical’ foods (such as
organic, free range and Freedom Foods) remains relatively small, estimated by the
Cabinet Office (2008) at less than 5% of the overall market (see Figure 3), there has been
growing interest in the way consumers negotiate multiple and sometimes conflicting
Figure 3: The growing UK market for ‘ethical food’
12
‘Campaigners vow to cut sugar in food’ (BBC News Online, 9 January 2014). The current campaign by
the campaign group Action on Sugar is similar to that employed by Consensus Action on Salt and Health in the
1990s to reduce salt levels in food.
12
source: Cabinet Office (2008),based on research by the Cooperative Bank and IGD
claims (concerning animal welfare, environmental sustainability, quality and taste among
a host of other ethical and practical considerations). Anthropologists and geographers
have explored the way ethical responsibilities towards ‘distant others’ may be traded-off
against the interests of family and friends closer to home (Miller 2001, Jackson et al.
2009b), while sociologists have examined the way ethical principles are negotiated into
practice (Watson & Meah 2013). Focusing on the wider gamut of consumer ethics may be
a more appropriate strategy than concentrating on the relatively small contingent of those
who identify self-consciously as ‘ethical consumers’ (cf. Barnett et al. 2011).
Food waste
Given current concerns about growing food insecurity even among the most affluent
countries of the Global North, there is significant pressure to reduce the amount of food
that goes to waste, currently estimated at between one third and one half of the total
food produced worldwide (Stuart 2009, IME 2013). The UK government estimates that UK
households throw away 8.3 million tonnes of food a year of which 65% is avoidable,
representing a potential saving of around £480 per household per year (DEFRA 2010: 55).
While groups like WRAP (the Waste and Resources Action Programme) seek to change
public attitudes through campaigns like ‘Love food, hate waste’, recent research
emphasises that food waste often arises from routine domestic practices (such as
supermarket shopping or catering to children’s different dietary needs and preferences),
rather than representing a profligate attitude to food (Evans 2012, see also Evans et al.
2013).
13
The potential trade-off between food safety and the reduction of food waste has also
received attention with the potential for cash-strapped consumers to eat food that is
beyond it use-by date (Watson & Meah 2013). This is an example of what might be called
a ‘good reason for bad behaviour’, where consumers eschew official food safety advice not
through ignorance or wilfulness but through the exercise of competing logics. A similar
example is provided by Tim Lobstein’s research on the relative costs of different sources
of calories (reported in The Guardian, 1 October 2008). Lobstein points out how
consumers can derive 100 calories of energy for 51 pence in the case of fresh broccoli
versus 2 pence from frozen chips. Poorer consumers are understandably drawn to the
cheaper option, especially when they fear that the healthier and more expensive option
may simply end up in the waste stream, rejected by family members for whom fruit and
vegetables do not figure highly in their dietary preferences. The implication is to exercise
caution before castigating consumers for making ‘bad’ choices, when further research may
reveal different reasons for their apparently aberrant behaviour.
Conclusion
This review has identified a number of current trends in UK food consumption, showing
how public debate and media commentary frequently runs ahead of the available evidence.
Food has powerful symbolic meanings, derived from its material and visceral properties,
which help explain why it is so readily moralised and politicised. As US food historian
Warren Belasco concludes: ‘Food is a strong “edible dynamic”, binding present and past,
individual and society, private household and world economy, palate and power’ (2007: 5).
Respect for evidence is therefore an important precondition for avoiding the kind of
inappropriate moral judgments that all too readily circulate around the place of food in
contemporary public life.
Professor Peter Jackson
Department of Geography
University of Sheffield
Sheffield S10 2TN
0114 222 7908
[email protected]
http://www.sheffield.ac.uk/foodfutures
14
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