Love British Food brought NHS professionals and public sector figures together on-farm
Although the Love British Food campaign has been established since 2002, in recent years founder Alexia Robinson has been trying to secure more robust supply chains and get local British produce into more schools, hospitals and public sector catering, in a bid to create a healthier nation.
NHS
Her latest achievement has seen her bring farmers, the NHS and public sector figures together on farms across the country to highlight the benefits of supporting British farmers.
Timothy Radcliffe, NHS net zero food programme manager, has been key in helping to facilitate this and aims to increase the amount of British produce on NHS menus across the country. Having held various roles in catering, including a stint in the Royal Air Force, he became non-executive director of Love British Food last year, and by working together, he hopes to be able to tackle the institution's carbon emissions while increasing patient health.
Carbon emissions
Of the NHS's carbon emissions, 6% come from catering, and Tim hopes to reduce that in a bid to reach the net zero 2040 goal. One way to reach this, he says, is to look at food as medicine, and a recent project, the venison project, he worked on while at Royal Blackburn Hospital in Lancashire, showcases the impact direct and localised sourcing can have.
He says: "The number one thing a patient requires is protein – it is the number one thing for recovery.
"Currently, the human body responds better to animal protein, but that is not to say you cannot mix it up. Venison has more protein per 100g than beef. It is not intensively farmed, has lower cholesterol and higher selenium.
"You are giving patients a better-quality product, lowering your carbon footprint and lowering your costs – you can do things which are cost-neutral. There is a perception that British food can be more costly than imports."
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Healthy society
This is also about social value, he says. The NHS is an ‘anchor institution', and investing in local community and business will only create more supply chain transparency and resilience. It requires a societal shift though, and food has to be given more value.
A healthier nation means less stress on the NHS, and the most efficient way to reduce its carbon footprint is to minimise patient stays. This can be done through diet.
"If you can reduce a stay from 10 days to nine days, and we can do that for everyone, then we would reduce our footprint exponentially," says Tim.
"There is some work going on around how food impacts a patient's stay – at Blackburn Hospital, we were able to reduce patient stays by 1.7 days by giving them higher density nutritional produce."
Former health minister and surgeon Lord Darzi recently published the independent review of the NHS, in which it clearly stated that there has to be more promotion around health and a focus on the obesity crisis.
If health is not prioritised, the NHS will come under extreme pressure due to an ‘ever-growing ill population'.
For Tim, there are some main focuses, and one is to make sure all NHS caterers are focusing on what is on their menus.
The other is to reduce the number of patients entering the NHS who are malnourished.
He says: "50% of people who enter the NHS are malnourished. This does not just mean underfed – we are talking about obesity too. You are four times more likely to die or have serious complications from surgery if you are malnourished, and four times more likely to be readmitted within seven days. We have to change that narrative."
Self-sufficiency
The other question lies around self-sufficiency, and this could be tackled by getting the public sector on board. There has to be, says Tim, a commitment to farmers that there will be a longevity in supplying such areas. Creating those supply chains will give farmers more confidence to produce specifically for those markets.
He adds: "We are not self-sufficient in this country – we are not even self-sufficient in potatoes, and that shows the work we need to do. We have to work with our heritage, and farmers are our heritage. We must also understand how important our purchasing powers are to farmers in this country."
