Hall of Fame and Shame on British Food

The Food Hall of Fame and Shame Awards, celebrating the work of people and organisations that have championed good food during 2010, and embarrassing those that they considered have obstructed efforts

The Food Hall of Fame and Shame Awards, celebrating the work of people and organisations that have championed good food during 2010, and embarrassing those that they considered have obstructed efforts to bring about a healthier and more sustainable food system. British charity Sustain announced the winners of its awards in seven different categories.

Tesco received a Shame award for Food Retailing due to advertising of their fresh bread

“2010 has been a challenging year in the food and farming world,” said Kath Dalmeny, Policy Director of Sustain, an alliance of food and farming organisations. “This year, weโ€™ve seen the coalition government hand health policy over to the junk food industry and junk food advertisers influencing policy at national and European level. On the positive side, communities all over the UK are taking back control of their food by setting up community food projects, campaigning, and supporting responsible food buying by schools and local authorities.

With our Food Awards, we highlight the food heroes and food villains of 2010. We hope that the recipients of our Food Fame awards will be encouraged to continue their great work, and that those who receive our Food Shame awards will do much more to promote good food, health and the environment in 2011.”

PUBLIC FOOD SECURITY AWARD

Fame

London Borough of Havering

Their impressive achievements in school and civic catering include using free range eggs, Freedom Food poultry and pork, and Marine Stewardship Council certified fish โ€“ and all on a small budget. Gerry Clinton, Haveringโ€™s Catering & Schools Traded Services Manager, deserves specific recognition for the efforts heโ€™s made above and beyond his huge workload, to implement all of this. Working with Sustain, he has encouraged and set an example to other local authorities to procure collaboratively to be able to afford good food.

Shame

Coalition Government โ€“ Proposed Government Buying Standards

In December, the Government issued a consultation on new Government Buying Standards for food served in Whitehall, government agencies and the armed forces. Examination of the standards shows that the Government has decided to serve healthy food to MPs and civil servants, but not to hospital patients, as the standards will not cover hospital food. The Coalition has promised to be the โ€™the greenest government yetโ€™, but the new standards propose that only a meagre one in five fish served in the public sector will have environmental standards, meaning that four in five could still come from endangered stocks and fish species.

FOOD PROMOTION TO CHILDREN AWARD

Fame

The Food for Life Partnership

The Food for Life Partnership is a Lottery-funded network of schools and communities across England committed to transforming food culture by revolutionising school meals, reconnecting children and young people with where their food comes from, and inspiring families to grow and cook food. In 2010, more primary, secondary and special schools than ever engaged with Food for Life and the Partnership signed up its 3,000th school. Their cooks and caterers now provide over 200,000 Food for Life accredited meals every day. Schools pursuing a Food for Life award bring good food to the centre of school life, giving pupils the broad food education they need to understand how their food choices affect their own health and the health of the planet.

Shame

Kelloggโ€™s

Parents responded with outrage in January 2010 after Kelloggโ€™s launched an advertising campaign, with posters at bus stops around the country. It featured the Coco Pops cartoon monkey dressed in a school uniform encouraging children to eat the high-sugar cereal as an after-school snack. The Childrenโ€™s Food Campaign pointed out that, as partners in the governmentโ€™s Change4Life anti-obesity campaign, and as Coco Pops are banned in schools and are not allowed to be advertised during childrenโ€™s television, Kelloggโ€™s marketing directly contradicted key Change4Life messages. This is the third โ€™shameโ€™ award the company has received this year, after they were recognised by the Australiaโ€™s Parentโ€™s Jury for being the worst offenders in their “Pester Power” and “Smoke and mirrors” awards for unhealthy food marketing.

MP Food Leadership Award

Fame

Joan Walley, MP for Stoke-on-Trent North and Zac Goldsmith, MP for Richmond Park and North Kingston

Joan and Zac worked together to champion the Public Bodies (Sustainable Food) Bill, which promised to transform public sector food by introducing mandatory health, environmental, animal welfare and ethical standards for all food served in public institutions. The Bill, which was introduced as a Private Membersโ€™ Bill by Joan Walley, is backed by more than 56 national organisations, including the Womenโ€™s Institute, RSPCA and the Chartered Institute of Environmental Health.

Shame

Andrew Lansley, MP for South Cambridgeshire

Secretary of State for Health in the Coalition Government, Andrew enraged health campaigners in 2010 by criticising Jamie Oliverโ€™s successful campaign to improve the quality of school food, and by giving junk food companies a strong say in public health policies. In July, he announced plans to allow the food industry, including Nestlรฉ and PepsiCo, to get more involved in the anti-obesity Change4Life campaign; in November it was revealed that the Health Secretaryโ€™s public health strategy involved “Responsibility Deals” with companies including McDonalds and KFC.

FOOD AND HEALTH AWARD

Fame

Consensus Action on Salt and Health (CASH)

In a series of high profile surveys this year, CASH has alerted consumers and shamed companies about excessive salt levels in a range of foods, including soups, curries, salads and barbeque foods, and lobbied government for a commitment to salt reduction. As a result of campaigns like these, average daily salt intake in the UK has fallen by almost ten per cent over the last five years, saving the UK economy ยฃ1.5bn a year and preventing an estimated 6,000 deaths from cardiovascular disease.

Shame

CIAA, the Confederation of the food and drink industries of the EU

The CIAA is estimated to have spent โ‚ฌ1bn on efforts to block European legislation which could have seen colour-coded “traffic light” nutritional labelling on the front of food packages to help people make healthier choices. The CIAAโ€™s lobbying campaign included television adverts, lunchtime debates with MEPs, and a stand with a “prize draw” inside the European Parliament, and at times key MEPs received up to 150 emails a day from the corporate lobbyists.

GREENER FOOD AWARD

Fame

Greater London Authority (GLA)

In December 2010, the GLA committed to higher standards for food served to Londonโ€™s key workers in the Metropolitan Police and in Transport for London who run the tubes, trains and buses. These standards mean serving only sustainable fish and free range eggs, plus a proportion of higher welfare Freedom Food meat, and all tea, coffee, sugar, bananas and a wide range of chocolate will be fairly traded. Deputy Mayor Richard Barnes, who leads the GLA group responsible procurement programme, said when launching the commitment, “We are determined to ensure that public money is used efficiently but even in challenging economic times, that it is also spent fairly and with maximum benefit to Londoners. This means using our purchasing clout to buy goods and services that are ethically sourced and have minimum impact on the environment and ensure that we generate skilled jobs, apprenticeships and training.”

Shame

Coca-Cola

Coca-Cola is a top-level sponsor for the London 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games with exclusive rights to sell beverages at the Games. They have promised a “sustainable logistics plan” for London 2012, stating they will serve 25 million drinks at the Games. The Childrenโ€™s Food Campaign estimates that this would result in spectators consuming over 300 tonnes of sugar and more than a billion sugary calories, or eight teaspoons of sugar for every one of the 8.8 million Olympic Games ticket sold. The campaign group also cast doubt on Coca-Colaโ€™s sustainability claims, drawing attention to a recent report on food and climate change, commissioned by the governmentโ€™s Food Standards Agency, which found that sugary drinks have a large carbon footprint, and recommended reducing consumption of these drinks.

COMMUNITY FOOD AWARD

Fame

Food and Health in Sandwell

For around 10 years, health and local authority professionals in Sandwell, West Midlands, have been working with community members to promote good health through food. Activities include community food growing projects, community cafรฉs, and GP referrals to community food projects. Sandwell, near Birmingham, needs more of this kind of work. Only this month, new figures showed that the West Midlands has the highest overweight and obesity levels in Europe, demonstrating how important this work is.

Shame

Heinz

In January 2010, the Advertising Standards Authority upheld a complaint that Heinz did not have sufficiently robust evidence to support claims that its Nurture infant formula and milk supported childrenโ€™s immunity and development. This followed a very similar case in October 2009 in which Danoneโ€™s adverts claiming that Actimel was “scientifically proven to help support your kids defences” were ruled against, after the company used research carried out in poor countries to justify their claims.

FOOD RETAILER AWARD

Fame

Unpackaged

Celebrating its third birthday in November 2010, this small grocer in North London is dedicated to less wasteful packaging, allowing its customers to buy food in their own containers. The business adheres to a strict sustainability policy, buying mainly organic products, supporting local producers and stocking seasonal and Fairtrade products as far as possible.

Shame

Tesco

In July 2010, Sustainโ€™s Real Bread Campaign made headlines after its complaint to the Advertising Standards Authority that Tesco was misleading consumers was upheld. Their magazine advertisement read: “Fresh bread. Baked from scratch in our in-store bakery. Using 100% British flour. So every single loaf is genuinely Britishโ€ฆBorn and bread.” However, Tesco were only baking loaves from scratch in 504 of its 2,362 UK stores and some were produced with imported flour. In its response to the complaint, Tesco admitted that far more (1,288) of its in-store bakeries merely re-baked loaves that were part-baked elsewhere.

About the author

Avatar of Linda Hohnholz

Linda Hohnholz

Editor in chief for eTurboNews based in the eTN HQ.

Share to...