Hugo Harper, Director at the innovation charity Nesta said:

The Food Strategy published today leaves too much on the cutting room floor. While we welcome the stated ambition, the suggested interventions will not be sufficient to deliver the desired impact.

Obesity is a major cause of poor health and will continue to put huge strain on the NHS. The strategy does too little to meet the scale of this challenge. Evidence shows that continuing to promote healthy eating information and reducing action to the level of the individual will not be enough - we need to change our food environment so that it’s easier and cheaper to eat healthy foods. Reformulation should be a key part of this, and manufacturers and producers have a major role to play. It's unfortunate that the strategy lacks policy commitments on regulation and reformulation that would take the pressure off individuals.

The expansion of Free School Meals is welcome but does not go far enough. England should follow the lead of Wales and Scotland in committing to universal provision of free school meals for primary school students. Evidence suggests school meals tend to be healthier than packed lunches and universal provision levels the playing field for children.

The government deserves credit for commissioning the Dimbleby Review and for its commitments to date on reshaping our broken food environment. Today’s strategy does include welcome initiatives like mandatory reporting of data, local partnerships and a focus on better evidence and randomised controlled trials. But, overall it lacks both the focus and the detail necessary to make the changes we need. We hope some of these omissions can be dealt with in the forthcoming Health Disparities White Paper.