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Ultra-processed foods and the danger they pose to human health are big news, with consumers increasingly aware of the negative impact UPFs have on their bodies. Linked to obesity, chronic disease and social isolation, these foods are affecting us in ways we don’t yet understand – and the UK is the most ultra-processed nation in Europe.

Here, Professor Franco Sassi from the School's Centre for Health Economics & Policy Innovation speaks to the UK's former food tsar and Leon co-founder about the country's broken food system and what needs to be done to save the nation's health.

FS: In 2020, you published The National Food Strategy. How was this received – and do you feel the government is making use of your recommendations?

HD: People often ask me, in a pitying tone, whether I really think politicians will act. Actually, they have, more than many expected. The junk food advertising restrictions are in, mandatory reporting on the healthiness of what companies sell is coming, and just last week [18 March 2026] the government published England's first ever Land Use Framework, something we recommended in the strategy and which could be genuinely groundbreaking for how we balance food production, housing and nature. So, real progress – but not yet at the scale or speed the problem demands.

FS: Both the media and public are highly responsive to discussions around UPFs and the effect they have on our health. Given this, why aren’t we seeing more action from the government?

HD: Because the politics are brutal. Dolly Van Tulleken [policy consultant and Visiting Researcher at Cambridge University's MRC Epidemiology Unit] and I interviewed three former prime ministers and ten former health secretaries for Nourishing Britain. They all described the same paralysis: any attempt to influence how people eat gets savaged as "nanny state", they are terrified that interventions to improve health will hit the economy, and the system is so complex that every lever has second-order effects. Politicians find it hard to act in those conditions.

FS: You have argued that one way to counter the impact of UPFs is for people to focus on whole foods and cooking from scratch. How can we encourage the public to change habits that are often built out of necessity, such as producing a quick family meal when parents are working?

HD: Several generations have grown up in households where nobody cooked, and the poorer you are the harder it gets: equipment, time, money. That's why in The School Food Plan we fought to make cooking compulsory in schools and why we set up Chefs in Schools.

It's not just about skills. Poverty narrows your bandwidth: stress, exhaustion, no margin for error. You can't afford to try a new recipe and have the kids refuse it. The poorest areas are food swamps, with twice as many fast food outlets and far fewer places to buy fresh ingredients. There are 1.9 million people in this country without a cooker.

FS: It’s estimated that around one in every four adults and around one in every five children aged 10–11 in the UK are living with obesity. Does the responsibility for this rest primarily with the government, the food industry or the general public?

HD: All three, but not equally. In 1950 less than one percent of the population was obese. We didn't all suddenly lose our willpower – the food system changed. Companies aren't cartoon villains, they're responding to incentives, but those incentives are the problem.

Several CEOs have told me privately they'd welcome legislation because they can't act alone. Until recently government was the only actor that could reset the rules. But now the pharmaceutical companies are getting involved.

FS: You have warned that unless the UK changes its relationship with UPFs, we’re in “real trouble as a society” – what is your biggest concern about the future of the nation’s health?

HD: That we fix obesity with drugs – which I think may happen – and think we've fixed everything. One in twenty UK adults is already on appetite suppressants. Obesity rates will come down.

But obesity is only the tip of the iceberg: poor diet harms us through effects on the gut, immune system and brain that have nothing to do with weight. We need to improve the quality of our food, not just reduce the quantity.

FS: What one fact would you like people to remember about UPFs?

HD: Over 50 percent of British calories come from ultra-processed food. In France and Italy, it's around 15 percent. We don't have to live this way.

FS: What role can business and science play in overcoming our addiction to UPFs?

HD: Science needs to keep tightening the causal story – policy and courts need more than vibes. Business needs to stop waiting for government. The winners will be companies that shift towards more of the good stuff: fibre, variety, real nutrition, and not just the "less bad".

FS: Is there any cause for optimism with regards to the future of the UK food industry?

HD: Yes. When I talk in schools, I like to scandalise the children by listing all the places you used to smoke – buses, trains, even the Tube. We could well look back at today's convenience aisles and think: wow, we used to eat that stuff.

Henry Dimbleby was a keynote speaker at 51�Թ��� Business School's UPF Forum, an event led by the Centre for Health Economics Policy & Innovation.