(Stourbridge) (Con):...Let me
explain a little more about ultra-processed food, as it surprises
me how few people know what it is. It is food that dominates the
shelves of our supermarkets
much of the food advertising on television, and the multi-buy
offers that customers see as they get close to the checkout. It
is food that takes up half the average UK diet, with the largest
consumption by children. It is food that is linked to heart,
kidney and liver disease, cancer, depression and obesity. It is
an underlying reason for many poor health outcomes. It is food
that has been processed so much that it has little health value;
the main ingredients include additives such as preservatives,
emulsifiers, sweeteners, and artificial colours and flavours.
Those ingredients destroy the integrity of the food itself, but
do nothing for its nutritional value, as they are being whipped
up into something more appetising with the help of emulsifiers...
...The key challenge is to get supermarkets to
put healthy products on multi-buys, encourage a promotional spend
shift to healthier food products and focus on making food more
affordable. Promotional deals are easy ways to make profit for
the supermarkets
peddling products that, to them, are low cost but high margin,
and have no nutritional value. There is no doubt that modern
living and work patterns mean that we find it difficult to find
time to cook unprocessed foods instead of purchasing
ultra-processed foods, as they are quicker to cook, ready to eat
and cheaper. I do not think that there is anyone here who has not
left Westminster on a Wednesday night and probably just picked up
a ready meal because it is the quicker and easiest thing to do...
(Stoke-on-Trent Central) (Con):...The rise of UPFs is
an emergent property of today’s commercialised and commodified
food systems. Many people feel food systems have become more
profit driven, with natural and fresh food less accessible. For
example, buy-one-get-one-free offers in supermarkets
often tempt us to buy more but, in 2015, supermarket promotions
in Britain were the highest in Europe, with around 40% of our
food expenditure going on promoted products...
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