Ultra-processed food: Is it too late to change?

Ultra-processed foods make up a worrying portion of childrens' diets. Education Business explores the issue and what is being done about it

Making sure children have a healthy diet is one of the key priorities for both parents and educators across the country. Worryingly, a study found that toddlers in the UK obtain almost half of their calories from ultra-processed foods (UPF), rising to 59 per cent by the age of seven.

Ultra-processed foods include many additives and ingredients that are not typically used in home cooking, such as preservatives, emulsifiers, sweeteners, and artificial colours and flavours. Examples include mass-produced bread, biscuits, carbonated drinks, and instant soups.

Even some breakfast cereals and fruit-flavoured yogurts that are often branded as the ‘healthy’ option for children’s meals are ultra-processed. These foods are often cheap, easy to access and addictive.

The British Nutrition Foundation said that if children don’t get all the nutrients they need from their diet, then this could affect their development. For example, children need enough calcium for strong bones and enough vitamin A to support a healthy immunity. Children with unhealthy diets can also have an increased risk of some diseases in later life (for example, type 2 diabetes and heart disease).

It can also increase the risk of being overweight or obese.

Schools play a major part in shaping the diets of young people. But are they too reliant on ultra-processed foods for school meals?     

We take a look at what the government and other organisations are doing to make sure ultra processed foods do not become a core part of a students’ diet.

House of Lords review

In October last year, the House of Lords published its review of UPF.

The Committee took evidence from a diverse group of voices and laid out a set of recommendations, as well as exploring how to promote healthy diets in schools. They highlighted that “too many schools are failing to offer food of an acceptable standard for children and young people.”

In response, they stated that the “monitoring of compliance with improved school food standards and support for schools to procure healthier food must be brought in.”

In addition to reviewing Free School Meal policy, the Committee recommended that the government should “ take forward reforms to the Government Buying Standards for Food and Catering Services to ensure that schools as well as other public sector organisations must procure healthier food.”

The Committee also recognised that unhealthy eating behaviours are established at an early age. They said the government should “set goals for improving maternal and infant nutrition to prevent childhood obesity, [and] develop a comprehensive and integrated strategy by the end of 2025.”

They also commented that the government should “legislate by the end of 2025 to set strong mandatory compositional and marketing standards for commercial infant foods” and “immediately review food standards for early years settings, making them mandatory, supporting early years settings to meet them and establishing a performance framework.”

This review was largely commended by educators and nutrition experts. Executive director of The Food Foundation, Anna Taylor, called it a “brilliant report”, and said “everything else dwarfs into insignificance when you look at the evidence.” She continued: “Their three big areas for action start with a systematic regulatory crackdown on businesses which continue to relentlessly push low nutrient foods which are loaded with calories; second a raft of measures which government can introduce to support children to get the good nutrition they need to grow; and third the steps needed to ensure that good policies can be developed into the future, and progress can be monitored – including a new law which sets out our expectations of the food system to protect the nation’s health.”

People pushing for change

It is not just the government that has felt the need to push for young people to have access to healthy food and heavily cut down on UPFs.

One new school-based programme in the works is aiming to incorporate nutrition into the education system: Real Food Rebellion.

It is currently at pre-pilot stage and will be running a nationwide pilot programme in the summer term of 2025.

The first to complete the pre-pilot was Dunesville Primary School in Doncaster, part of the Brighter Futures Learning Partnership Trust, which is a creative partner in the project.

It features educational modules, developed by teachers and health professionals, to explain why real food is best and how to make healthier choices.

As well as this upcoming programme, the Felix Project is another group hoping to make a change to children’s ultra-processed diets.

They provide a host of different services for schools across London. The charity collects food from places such as farms and supermarkets, which is then turned into nutritious meals by a team of volunteers. This food is delivered to local schools to help feed children, families and individuals in need.

For their Holiday Programme, the charity partnered with the Mayor of London Sadiq Khan to deliver 10 million meals over the next year to combat hunger and help young people have healthy meals during the school holiday breaks. The food comes in a variety of formats from traditional food parcels, to prepared meals and even recipe boxes to encourage families to cook together at home.

While the current state of children’s ultra-processed diet can seem grim, organisations such as these are trying to make real change.