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The Better by Half Roadmap refreshed
25 September 2024
We are excited to release the updated Better by Half Roadmap, Eating Better’s guide for achieving nutritious, healthy and sustainable diets across the UK, with a focus on less and better meat and dairy. This revision builds on its creation in 2019. It is a reflection of our shared objectives as an alliance, formed through collaboration between our 68 member organisations.
Governments Producers Retailers and manufacturers Food service Financial institutions and investors
News
Key to sustainable plant production is fair pay and accessibility
2 September 2024
Eating Better’s Better by Half roadmap calls for producers to maximise UK-based plant production in a sustainable way. Key to this is paying growers fairly and embedding accessibility across the business. We spoke to Sean Ruffell, Managing Director of Organic North in Manchester, about how they are supporting farmers and supplying organic produce to businesses across the UK.
Producers Retailers and manufacturers Food service
News
Processed meat and health of young children
26 September 2023
Our recent report ‘It’s time to act on processed meat’ highlights the need to reduce processed meat for our health and the planet. Processed meat intake in infants and children is particularly concerning due to the high level of salt. We spoke to Eating Better alliance member First Steps Nutrition Trust about processed meat and young children’s health.
Governments Retailers and manufacturers Food service
Reports
Eating Better alliance call for significant reduction in processed meat consumption
20 September 2023
A new resource from Eating Better considers the health impacts of processed meat and highlights the need for public sector caterers and health organisations to focus efforts on reducing processed meat consumption in the UK.
Governments Retailers and manufacturers Food service
News
Checking out on-farm soil health in retailer sourcing
10 July 2023
Our report ‘Sourcing Better Checked Out’ found a lack of effective sourcing policies to support local soil health on farms. We found no publicly available reporting on specific soil health indicators, or policies to limit insecticidal veterinary medication use that is harmful to soil health.
Retailers and manufacturers
News
Checking out on-farm biodiversity in retailer sourcing
24 March 2023
Our recent report ‘Sourcing Better Checked Out’ found a lack of effective sourcing policies to support local biodiversity in farmed landscapes. While many retailers had topline statements of ambition, there is almost no reporting on biodiversity actions or indicators throughout their meat and dairy supply chains.
Retailers and manufacturers
News
Are we being fed on a diet of greenwash?
23 March 2023
Maddy Haughton- Boakes, Campaigns Advisor at the Changing Markets Foundation introduces their new report ‘Feeding us Greenwash’, which lifts the green veil and highlights the extent of greenwashing by food companies and how consumers respond to these environmental claims.
Governments Producers Retailers and manufacturers Food service
Reports
Food retailers fail to publish evidence on sustainable sourcing
7 March 2023
A new report reviews retailers’ published commitments against Eating Better’s Sourcing Better framework.
Retailers and manufacturers
Films
Building a better local food economy
22 November 2022
‘Producing, Buying and Serving Better’ is the latest film by Eating Better, highlighting the exemplary work taking place in Scotland. This is an inspirational story that can help other local authorities, producers and retailers see the potential of local food systems.
Governments Producers Retailers and manufacturers
News
“Sandwiches Unwrapped” Survey and public poll 2022
22 June 2022
Food service and food retail greatly influence how we shop and what we eat and holding them to account is key to shifting the dial to get us all eating better. Using the sandwich sector as a proxy, Eating Better tracked and benchmarked retailer commitment to sustainable eating by examining changes in their sandwich offer. Our new report “Sandwiches Unwrapped 2022” looks at changes in vegetarian and plant-based sandwich ranges against meat-based ones.
Retailers and manufacturers Food service
Reports
Eating Better Sandwich Survey 2022
22 June 2022
Food service and food retail greatly influence how we shop and what we eat and holding them to account is key to shifting the dial to get us all eating better. Eating Better’s new report “Sandwiches Unwrapped 2022” looks at changes in vegetarian and plant-based sandwich ranges against meat-based ones, using the sandwich sector as a proxy to track and benchmark retailer commitment to sustainable eating. The analysis shows the sandwich aisle is still too meaty and plant-based too pricey.
Retailers and manufacturers Food service
News
Supermarkets must take action to reduce pesticide harms in their soy supply chains
27 April 2022
A new campaign from the Soil Association exposes the use of highly hazardous pesticides in supermarket soy supply chains for chicken feed.
Retailers and manufacturers Food service
News
The hidden health impacts of industrial livestock systems
7 April 2022
A new report, released today on World Health Day, by World Animal Protection and Tasting the Future, has laid bare the most damaging human health impacts linked to factory farming, and how these will only get worse as the demand for cheap meat continues to grow ...
Retailers and manufacturers Food service
Case Studies
Sourcing better for food retail
31 March 2022
Waitrose’s farming commitments demonstrate its leadership in farm animal welfare and deliver “better.” It holds 14 Retailer Awards from Compassion in World Farming, including five Good Farm Animal Welfare Awards. Waitrose is ranked as tier one leaders by Business Benchmark on Farm Animal Welfare.
Retailers and manufacturers
Case Studies
Taking the first steps to helping everyone eat a healthier and more sustainable diet
31 March 2022
Sainsbury’s has taken the first steps toward embedding a sustainable diets strategy across the business. The food retailer’s ‘Helping Everyone Eat Better’ brand commitment is focused on supporting healthier and more sustainable diets through a number of strategies.
Retailers and manufacturers
Case Studies
Tackling the sustainability of the average shopping basket
31 March 2022
Initially developed with Tesco, WWF is now working with five UK supermarkets to halve the environmental impact of UK baskets by 2030, using the WWF Basket metric to track progress.
Retailers and manufacturers
Case Studies
Investing in price to make plant-based food more accessible
31 March 2022
The Co-op is encouraging its customers to reduce meat consumption and eat more plants by pricing plant-based foods competitively against meat products. The retailer is doing this as part of its Climate Plan and Count Us In programme.
Retailers and manufacturers
Case Studies
Labelling method of production on meat products
31 March 2022
Eating Better’s public attitudes survey found almost three-quarters of the UK public would like to do more to support farmers that have high animal welfare and environmental standards.
Retailers and manufacturers
Films
Buying Better: how shopping and eating sustainably can help tackle climate change and nature loss
25 November 2021
Agriculture is a huge contributor to the climate and nature crises. According to WWF UK, 30% of human-made greenhouse gas emissions are caused by food production and 60% of global nature loss is caused by the food system.
Retailers and manufacturers
News
Resistance and Responsibility: antibiotic use in supermarket supply chains
24 November 2021
As Campaign Manager at the Alliance to Save our Antibiotics, I’ve been assessing UK supermarket’s antibiotics policies since 2017. Over this time I have seen a shift toward more robust antibiotic policies.
Retailers and manufacturers
Reports
Our Ready Meals survey 2021 reveals more choice and affordability for plant-based ready meals at UK supermarkets
30 June 2021
Our latest ready meals snapshot reveals that plant-based meals are the fastest growing category, up by 92% since our first survey in 2018.
Retailers and manufacturers
News
Feedback launches retailer environmental scorecard
16 June 2021
Eating Better member organisation Feedback has just published their Meat and Climate Supermarket Scorecard for 2021, ranking the top ten UK retailers on their work to address the climate crisis by reducing the environmental impact of the meat and dairy they sell.
Retailers and manufacturers
News
New Veg Facts 2021 report finds both adults and children are still not consuming enough veg
15 June 2021
The Veg Facts 2021 report from Peas Please continues to show both adults and children are not consuming enough veg to meet the Government’s Eatwell Guide recommendations, with 29% of 5-10 year olds eating less than a portion of veg a day.
Retailers and manufacturers
News
Earth Day 2021: Five ways to eat #LessAndBetter to protect our planet
21 April 2021
As we emerge from the pandemic, it’s time to hit reset - we can’t go back to business-as-usual. We need to take action to fix the climate and nature emergency, but we can’t do this without tackling food.
Retailers and manufacturers