UK eats almost four times more packaged food than fresh

The UK eats almost four times as much packaged food as it does fresh produce, according to new data, with most of western Europe and north America following a similar pattern.

The packaged food revolution – which includes ready meals and calorific cakes and biscuits – is held at least partly to blame for the rise in obesity in the US and Europe. Fresh food has played a smaller and smaller part in some families’ lives as the pace of life has speeded up over recent decades, working hours have increased and more women have entered the workplace. Set against this is the rise of ever more tasty instant meals.

Euromonitor has analysed data from 54 countries and shown that the balance has shifted from fresh to packaged food in the most developed. In some of the other populous but less developed nations – China, India and Vietnam – the nutrition transition, as obesity experts term it, has not yet reached tipping point and they are still getting most of their calories from fresh food.

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In 2015, the data shows, 85% of the countries Euromonitor looked at consume more calories from packaged food than from fresh. The data relates to sales, but there is an assumption that most food that is bought is also eaten.

Brazil’s population consumed the highest number of calories per person per day as fresh food, out of the nine major countries in the survey, at 1,065 calories. The UK was second to bottom, at 405, above Japan which consumed just 247 calories from fresh food.

The UK bought the second highest calorific load of packaged food – 1,547 per person per day in 2015. Belgium was top, on 1,670 calories. China, Vietnam and India bought the least, with India buying just 164 calories in the form of packaged food.

Taking packaged and fresh food together, Belgium’s population buys the most calories per head, at nearly 2,600. India buys the least, at just over 760 calories per head in 2015.

Sara Petersson, nutrition analyst at Euromonitor International, said that the rise of packaged food was not necessarily all bad. “It is kind of the way we are today. The food we eat today is convenient. It is fast to consume and we don’t have to prepare it. Much of it is high in salt, sugar and fat but there are so many healthier packaged foods coming out all the time,” she said.

Food companies are now looking at reformulating food, to reduce the salt, sugar and fat content, reducing the pack size – which in the case of confectionery will probably result in smaller chocolate bars – and they can direct their customers to healthier lines, such as reduced sugar soft drinks.

But the rise of packaged food is cause for concern among obesity experts.

“Sadly, processed, packaged foods tend to be less healthy,” said Dr Tim Lobstein, director of policy at the World Obesity Federation.

“Better profits can be made from products with a long shelf-life and that can be formulated and branded as a commercial commodity. Fresh and perishable foods have a tough time competing with processed, additive-laden, brightly-packaged products. The logic of mass production means that the least healthy foods will often be the cheapest, and will be widely promoted in lower-income urban areas.”

Last month a professor of neuroscience who won an award for his work on the brain’s reward system advocated that high calorie food should be sold in plain packaging to be less attractive to shoppers.

“Colourful wrapping of high energy foods of course makes you buy more of that stuff and once you have it in your fridge, it’s in front of you every time you open the fridge and ultimately you’re going to eat it and eat too much,” said Wolfram Schultz, of the University of Cambridge.

Euromonitor also reveals that in many countries – 28 of the 54 its analysts examined, including the UK – more calories are bought in the form of alcohol than soft drinks.

“With the current obesity crisis, a lot of bad press has surrounded soft drinks, especially sugar-sweetened beverages,” said Petersson. The government’s proposed sugary drinks tax is aimed at reducing child obesity. However, she said, the data on alcoholic drinks suggests that sugar-sweetened drinks are not the only problem when it comes to adults.

“Of course, the relationship between sugar consumption and obesity/diseases is still crucial,” she said. “However, given the even stronger evidence for the relationship between alcohol consumption and morbidity, this data cannot be disregarded. Instead, this data could be used by soft drinks companies to argue against statements such as ‘soft drinks are primarily to blame for the obesity crisis’ or by policy makers/public health organisations to strengthen incentives against alcohol consumption.”

UK eats almost four times more packaged food than fresh