UK Dietary Guidelines in Need of Plant-Based Reform to Save the NHS Millions

The UK government is being urged to update its Eatwell Guide in line with the Eat-Lancet Planetary Health Diet, with a plant-forward system predicted to save the NHS over £50M every year.

As novel food regulation advances rapidly in the UK, its government is now being called upon to make a policy shift towards plant-based consumption, which activists argue could bring huge cost savings for public systems and the public itself.

In a policy briefing helmed by NGO Feedback Global, experts outline how the Labour government could deliver its promised reform of the £5B it spends on public procurement of food and catering services every year.

In its pre-election manifesto, the party outlined set a target to make half of all food purchased across the public sector to be locally produced or certified to higher environmental standards.

“We strongly recommend baseline standards for all food procurement rooted in healthy sustainable diets, which are required to reduce emissions and can significantly improve health outcomes,” the briefing states, explaining that if school and hospital meals adopt a plant-forward approach, taxpayers and the National Health Service (NHS) would stand to save millions of pounds every year.

The briefing is supported by 25 health and climate organisations, including the Food Foundation, Plant-Based Health Professionals UK, Compassion in World Farming, Fairtrade Foundation, and The Vegan Society.

“Currently, high-emissions meat and dairy [are] the default meal options, often making it difficult to choose anything else – our schools and hospitals can make healthy sustainable meals more abundant, without taking away any freedom of choice,” said Martin Bowman, senior campaigns manager at Feedback Global.

“The Labour government has a huge opportunity to save the NHS money, boost the nation’s health and reach its climate targets by serving up more healthy sustainable meals in schools and hospitals,” he added.

The NHS could save £55M in annual costs through vegan approach

The groups say the UK Eatwell Guide and the related Scottish Eatwell Guide “urgently need updating”, in line with the Eat-Lancet Commission’s Planetary Health Diet. The Eatwell Guide currently recommends eating five fruits and vegetables a day, dairy and dairy alternatives low in fat and sugar, whole grains instead of refined, plant proteins like beans and pulses, two portions of “sustainably sourced” fish a week, and less red and processed meat.

But they need to go further, as dietary guidelines in countries like Germany, Austria, Finland and Norway have done in recent months. The Planetary Health Diet says at least 50% of consumption should come from fruits and vegetables, over a third from whole grains, plant proteins and plant oils, and just 3.6% from dairy products and meat and seafood.

Aligning the UK’s consumption patterns to this would save the cash-strapped NHS a lot of money, both from public procurement and improved health outcomes. And there is public support for this – 35% of Brits say they’d back a transition to a 100% vegan menu at NHS hospitals.

The briefing took the example of New York City’s Health + Hospitals scheme for plant-based meals, which made vegan food the default option in all 11 public hospitals in the city – 55% of patients chose the plant-based option, saving 59 cents per dish. Since the NHS serves 199 million meals a year, replicating this would result in £55M in potential savings.

Additionally, an Oxford University study found that reducing per capita meat consumption to two to three servings each week could prevent 45,000 premature deaths and reduce NHS costs by £1.2B a year.

These findings align with other research, which has found that a ‘plant-based by default’ approach could save the NHS £74M annually, with significant household savings too if patients are supported in making dietary shifts. Similar research by the Office of Health Economics estimated that if England were to adopt a completely plant-based diet, the NHS would see a net benefit of up to £18.8B a year. 

The report urges the government to embed sustainability into the Eatwell Guide. Following the Eat-Lancet Planetary Health Diet (at least 50% of which is comprised of fruits and vegetables, over a third from whole grains, plant proteins and plant oils, and just 3.6% from dairy products and meat and seafood) could lower dietary emissions in affluent nations by 61%.

The groups also present potential benefits to farmers from serving organic produce in public settings, citing six local projects that have increased vegetable and pulse production whilst paying a premium to growers.

How the UK government can transform the food system

So, how can the UK actually implement any of this? Among the briefing’s recommendations are the creation of a binding target to lower average emissions per meal to help meet national climate targets, ensuring that a plant-based meal is always available, and prioritising whole foods like legumes, nuts, and whole grains.

Further, the UK must scrap its School Food Standards, which currently make it compulsory for schools to serve meat at least three days a week. Removing this would give schools more freedom to adopt a “less but better” approach to meat, set limits on harmful foods like red and processed meat, and ensure at least two portions of vegetables or pulses in each meal.

“Plant-based proteins should be given their own food category rather than being merged with animal protein as is currently the case,” the groups say. “Plant-based alternatives to milk, enriched with calcium, should also be made available on every school day at a time during school hours, as is currently the case for animal milk.”

They add that processed plant-based meat and dairy products have been found not to increase the risk of cancer, heart disease, or diabetes, so they must be distinguished from “more harmful ultra-processed foods”.

“Every day, we spend millions of pounds of the public’s money on food. This should be going in the pockets of sustainable farmers, and to creating a healthy environment and healthy people,” said Ruth Westcott, campaign manager at Sustain. “The government has committed to buying local and sustainable food for the public sector and we urge them to lose no time in making good on this promise by introducing the achievable and proven standards set out in this briefing.”

The report is the latest in a growing list of efforts asking the UK to decarbonise via its food system. The Plant-Based Food Alliance – which includes Alpro, Oatly, Quorn, and more – has urged Keir Starmer’s administration to create a plant-based action plan (as Denmark has done).

Food industry leaders recently came together to produce a net-zero transition plan for the country’s food system, highlighting the need for a 20% reduction in meat consumption by 2050 in order to achieve said goals. And the UK Climate Change Committee has noted that meat intake needs to fall by 35% by 2050, with a steeper 40% decline in red meat consumption, if it is to meet its net-zero target.