Disadvantaged communities left behind by the traditional UK food system will have a bigger say in how healthy and sustainable food is produced and distributed through a new research project involving academics at the University of Plymouth.
The project unites researchers and food industry representatives with charity leaders to reimagine how food policy, products and supply chains can be developed.
It will focus on working with disadvantaged communities to jointly imagine new solutions to address a lack of access to healthy, sustainable food.
The work is one of four interdisciplinary research projects to have received a total of £24million funding through the UK Research and Innovation (UKRI) Strategic Priorities Fund (SPF).
It will develop a framework to ensure food is affordable, desirable and fits with the complex demands on people's lives. This means regular consumption of a nutritious diet, produced in a way that is good for our planet, will be an attainable aspiration for all members of our society.
Preliminary work has shown that people living in disadvantaged communities have the desire to eat a healthier diet and are aware that good nutrition is closely linked to good physical and mental health.
Dr Clare Pettinger, Lecturer in Public Health Dietetics
The project is being conducted by a partnership including Dr Clare Pettinger, Lecturer in Public Health Dietetics, and colleagues at the universities of Reading, Cranfield, Sussex and Kent. She said:
"I am thrilled to be part of a collaborative project which brings together four very diverse communities [alongside a range of other key partners], putting their voices at the heart of more democratic decision making to transform our food system. In Plymouth, a city with very high levels of disadvantage, we have seen worsening inequities in food access, particularly in our more disadvantaged communities, which affects both physical and mental health. This project bring enormous opportunities to our city offering our communities, and the organisations that serve them, a greater active say in how we can transform our food system to support both human and planetary health gains."
Our research
Nutrition is integral to life and health; it influences growth, development, maintenance of health, and can be used to treat disease. We are working to further understand the relationship between nutrition and health.
Our Dietetics, Human Nutrition and Health research group encompasses all these aspects of nutritional research and collaborates across professions and with other institutes, promoting inter-disciplinary research between the area of nutrition.
