Good food, good life

For many years, policies seeking to prevent obesity were focused on personal responsibility and behavioral changes, rather than addressing the dominance of pre-packaged and convenient, yet unhealthy products in the commercial food system. Faced with rising healthcare costs, governments are increasingly taxing and regulating producers of unhealthy foods. In the UK, obesity already costs the National Health Service GBP 6 billion annually, a figure that is set to reach more than GBP 9.5 billion by 2050. Last year, Colombia introduced a “junk food” tax to address the issue. Concerned with regulatory and reputational risks, investors are also scrutinizing the role played by large food manufacturers. For instance, last month, ShareAction filed a shareholder resolution asking Nestlé to set a target to increase the proportion of its sales that come from healthier products. Notably, more than one billion servings of Nestlé products are consumed worldwide each day, giving the company outsized influence on consumer diets.

Source: Tony Blair Institute for Global Change, 2023