Nutrition and Diet

In food security, nutrition and diet are part of the requirement when food products are provided (Pinstrup-Andersen, 2009). To some extent, nutrition and diet also mean a healthy recommendation of chemical substances in the food and drink consumed each day needed by the body (British Nutrition Foundation, 2018 and Gordon-Davis & Van Rensburg, 2004). Hence, Public Health England (2016) established the Eatwell guide to recommend the required amount of food, calories per day in order to achieve a healthy and balanced diet (NHS, 2019). Therefore, it suggests that nutrition plays a major role in maintaining good health for people of all ages.

In the UK, the Food Standards Agency (FSA) (2018) released a nutrition labelling requirement for prepacked food. Information of energy value, amount of fat, saturates, carbohydrates, sugars and protein are required to be declared on the package. According to the United States National Restaurant Association (2020), focus on nutrition can help HaFS businesses to define core values hence, build customer trust. Therefore, by complying with the recommendation of the FSA requirement, businesses can achieve high customers’ loyalty hence, increase repeated purchases. The video below from FSA will explain the front of pack labelling for pre-pack food.

Nevertheless, FSA introduced the Quantitative Declaration of Ingredients (QUID) which displayed as a percentage of a particular ingredient contained in a food product. For example, 42% of pork in sausage. This is part of the FSA’s Compositional standards which will be clarified in the video below.

According to the FAO, IFAD, UNICEF, WFP and WHO’s research of food security and nutrition in the world (2020), food insecurity contributed to the increased risk of child malnutrition due to lack of diet quality and food accessibility. Moreover, more than 10 per cent of children under 15 living in a severely food insecure household in the UK (Houses of Parliament, 2019). Hence, certain areas in the UK are facing food insecurity which is likely to cause diet-related diseases. It can be said that there is a direct relation between food security and dietary nutrition requirement. To some extent, the donation from food banks and the HaFS businesses can support the nutrition, diet requirement for people that are in need.

References:

British Nutrition Foundation (2018) Vision, mission and values. [Online] [Accessed on 15th October 2020] https://www.nutrition.org.uk/aboutbnf/vision-mission-and-values.html

FAO, IFAD, UNICEF, WFP and WHO (2020) The State of Food Security And Nutrition In The World: Transforming Food System For Affordable Healthy Diets. Rome, FAO. [Online] DOI: 10.4060/ca9699en

Food Standards Agency (2018) Nutrition labelling. [Online] [Accessed on 15th October 2020] https://www.food.gov.uk/business-guidance/nutrition-labelling

Food Standards Agency (2018) Packaging and labelling. [Online] [Accessed on 15th October 2020] https://www.food.gov.uk/business-guidance/packaging-and-labelling

Houses of Parliament (2019) Sustainable Development Goals in the UK follow up: Hunger, malnutrition and food insecurity in the UK. [Online] [Accessed on 15th October 2020] https://publications.parliament.uk/pa/cm201719/cmselect/cmenvaud/1491/149105.htm

National Restaurant Association (2020) Focus on nutrition helps define core values, builds consumer trust. [Online] [Accessed on 15th October 2020] https://restaurant.org/articles/news/focus-on-nutrition-defines-values-builds-trust

NHS (2019) The Eatwell Guide. [Online] [Accessed on 15th October 2020] https://www.nhs.uk/live-well/eat-well/the-eatwell-guide/?tabname=recipes-and-tips

Pinstrup-Andersen, P. (2009) Food Security: Definition and Measurement. Food Sec, 1, 5-7. [Online] DOI: 10.1007/s12571-008-0002-y