Lend me your ears ...

Do politicians actually get the UK's food industry? While MPs of all political colours are happy to jump on the latest press band wagon castigating Britain's food manufacturers for the evil processed food they are supposedly forcing down our throats, too many seem oblivious to the importance of the sector to the nation's wealth.

Ignorance persists despite the formation of the All Party Parliamentary Food and Drink Manufacturing Group, which is supported by the Food and Drink Federation (FDF), in an attempt to improve MP understanding.

The FDF never misses a chance to remind anyone who will listen that the food and drink sector is the UK's largest manufacturing industry accounting for 15% of total output directly employing 440,000 people and generating £72.8bn of annual turnover.

And yet, it seems too few politicians see the dangers of demonising the sector. They fail to recognise that jobs could be lost overseas if it becomes too difficult for companies to do business at home.

Two recent events have coincided to emphasise the schizophrenia that influences attitudes to the industry. First we had the acquisition by Kraft of 'national treasure' Cadbury; quickly followed by Kraft's decision to close Cadbury's Somerdale manufacturing plant in Keynsham, near Bristol despite assurances pre-acquisition that it would be kept open. Of course, the political classes were quick to attack this dastardly overseas conglomerate for destroying British jobs.

However, in the very same week, the Food Standards Agency (FSA) reported the results of the National Diet and Nutrition Survey (NDNS). This showed that, despite a slight drop in the saturated fat intake of adults to 12.8% of food energy, levels are above the recommended 11%. And people are still eating too much added sugar (currently 12.5% of food energy intake compared with the recommended 11%) and not eating enough fibre, which is essential for healthy digestion. So, that's advice to eat fewer bars of Dairy Milk chocolate then!

With the NDNS also finding that teenage girls have some of the most unhealthy diets in the country, we can expect more pressure on the industry to reduce fat, salt and sugar, with manufacturers forced further in reformulating their products to make them healthier. However, industry arguments about consumers boycotting foods when reformulation goes too far and products just don't taste very good anymore appear to fall on deaf ears.

Such a disconnect is also manifest in government decision-making too. Industry commentators accuse government of a lack of joined-up thinking between different departments, which results in manufacturers being pulled in different directions. Similar accusations are also made against policies that emerge from Brussels, which affect the UK's food industry even more.

It was hoped that the government's recently-published Food 2030 strategy, would go some way to addressing these issues. But already, criticism is mounting about its lack of detail.

"In Food 2030, the Prime Minister commits government to play its part in ensuring that the UK food chain can continue to thrive as an innovative, competitive and resilient sector," said Melanie Leech, director general of the Food and Drink Federation (FDF), at a seminar on the future of the food industry organised by the Westminster Food & Nutrition Forum in London last month. "Government must now turn its vision into a meaningful cross-Whitehall strategy."

Leech went on: "We would like to see future strategy underpinned by a political appreciation of the importance of processors to the success of the overall UK economy and for food manufacturers to be made a genuine priority for government. In return, government can be confident that a successful sector will continue to show real leadership in the way it responds to difficult challenges in the areas of health and the environment."

She highlighted the level of investment made by the industry in product innovation and reformulation, plus the sector's commitment to meeting the goals laid down in its Five-Fold Environmental Ambition to help shape the future of sustainable global food production.

Without doubt Britain's food supply chain will have to change to meet other challenges it faces, such as the increasing demand for the world's limited resources and issues of food security. "We need to get more from less in volatile conditions," remarked IGD think tank chief executive, Joanne Denney-Finch. "We will need more help from our scientists and technologists, but mistrust of science will slow us down when we need it most."

However, in a year of potential change in government and the prospect of huge cuts in public spending to address the fiscal deficit, there is much uncertainty evident within the industry and agencies, such as the FSA, which control it. But, even if the Conservatives do seize power and carry out their proposals to divert the FSA's nutritional responsibilities to a new Department of Public Health, pressure on the food sector is unlikely to go away.

As Lord Haskins, vice chairman of the All-Party Parliamentary Group on Science and Technology in Agriculture, so succinctly put it at the seminar: "The future is about nutrition and climate change plus how we deal with all the neuroses in society." FM