Mandatory reporting, healthy life years and affordability: the health themes that shaped IGD’s 2026 event, and what needs to happen next.
"We have all the information we need. We have all the evidence we need. And we have the opportunity to shape the future together."
— Sarah Bradbury, CEO, IGD
On 21 October, food system leaders came together in London for IGD’s Future of the UK Food System conference. The theme was moving from ambition to action at scale.
On health, the diagnosis was not in dispute. Speakers from retail, manufacturing, government, charity and investment broadly agreed on the problem. The discussion centred on delivery.
View the full speaker list here.
Affordability comes first
Sainsbury’s CEO Simon Roberts set the tone in his opening keynote. For many shoppers, the weekly shop is a series of trade-offs between health and budget. Healthy, affordable food needs to be within reach of every family.
Other speakers returned to the point throughout the day. Greggs CEO Roisin Currie described how the business found that fruit pots were not selling and removed the price premium in its meal deal. For Greggs, affordability was the barrier rather than customer appetite.
Defra Secretary of State Dame Angela Eagle closed the day with a direct ask of industry: work with local communities to provide affordable, healthy food.
Mandatory health reporting
The strongest area of agreement was mandatory health reporting. Tesco’s Gordon Gafa, Greggs’ Roisin Currie, Greencore’s Dalton Philips and The Food Foundation’s Anna Taylor all backed it.
Tesco called for mandatory reporting earlier this year. It set itself a target of 65% healthier food sales, allowing it to pull ahead of the location and promotion HFSS restrictions. Greencore’s healthier sales are currently at 62%. It acknowledged that reporting is uncomfortable for manufacturers, but supports it regardless. A common timeline and targets would level the playing field. Voluntary action has delivered progress, but it has been patchy across the industry.
This was echoed on the policy side. There was alignment that companies that do the right thing should not be put at a commercial disadvantage, however it is tricky to solve that. Margins are tighter in more deprived areas, and the products that succeed combine a clear health benefit with taste, value and enjoyment. Start-up companies are doing this well, and bigger businesses can learn from them.
The Soft Drinks Industry Levy was cited as proof that action can work, with sugar levels falling while sales rose. However, this is just one category across food and drink. Panelists also wanted reporting to cover the whole food industry, not just retailers.
What national averages hide
We held two dedicated health breakout panels, which kept returning to inequality. It was noted previous obesity strategies leaned too heavily on individual choice. The 10-Year Health Plan for England has begun to shift the focus to the food environment, particularly in areas of higher deprivation and obesity rates. National figures mask wide variation between places. In some wards, almost half of children have obesity, more than double the national average. This is then compounded as children with obesity are around five times more likely to have obesity as adults.
And yet, tackling obesity through early detection is not true prevention. Prevention needs to focus on changing diets, physical activity, and lifestyle modifications.
Three ways were set out to strengthen the safety net for children living in the bottom 40% of households: broaden eligibility, improve uptake, and increase funding. 11% of eligible children are not registered for free school meals, and the gap is wider for Healthy Start, at 30%. Local data could be used to move Healthy Start from opt-in to automatic enrolment.
The new School Food Standards, initiated in 2024, is a significant step. The standards will be implemented at the start of the new school year, bringing free school meals to at least half a million more children. If that is possible in three years, it is possible in other areas.
It was also suggested that the new Good Food Neighbourhoods could be used to trial ideas discussed on the day, such as a year-round food education programme or industry topping up the value of Healthy Start vouchers in store.
Prevention, GLP-1s and healthy life years
There was an ask to look beyond obesity and focus on healthy life years. Much of the disease burden sits in adults, and diet-related ill health carries healthcare costs that ultimately fall on taxpayers. It was argued that incentives for food companies need to change, so that health and enjoyment sit alongside profit.
GLP-1s and AI were recurring themes. Maha Tamiri stated that reformulation alone cannot solve a biological problem, because these drugs change the biology behind food choices. On the other hand, AI is changing shopper's choices from brick and mortar, to prompt and mortar. This leaves the question, when shoppers ask AI what to eat, is your organisation in the answer?
However, technology does not have to be expensive to work. Other speakers pointed to the Couch to 5K app, where 8.7 million runs were completed in 2024, as proof that simple tools can reach people at scale.
Fibre emerged as a practical opportunity. 96% of the UK population does not eat enough fibre, and panellists called on industry to lead by making high-fibre options the most attractive and convenient choice.
Working together
Co-opetition was the word of the day. Companies compete on ranges and price but collaborate on the shared challenges that no single business can solve alone, such as reporting and standards. The argument was that health belongs on the cooperation side.
IGD opinion
The conference showed that the debate on health is moving from whether to act to how. Industry is asking for clearer rules. Government is moving from acting on individual choice to acting on the food environment.
Mandatory reporting is the clearest next step. It gives the industry a level playing field and it gives investors' confidence, and we will welcome the Government consultation on this. Affordability must stay at the centre of any approach, because healthier food cannot be the preserve of those who can afford it.
IGD’s role is to bring the system together, as a convenor rather than an owner. That includes food education. IGD is working with the British Nutrition Foundation on a pilot programme for Years 7 and 8, with ingredients and equipment funded by three retailers and alignment with the new curriculum and school food standards. A do-nothing approach is not an option.