What’s in your food and how can you eat better? In this series, we look at some staple meals, considering what’s good for you and what’s maybe not – and how you can turn them into dishes that are healthier, better for the planet and alive with flavour.

Christmas Pudding is an enduring favourite for dessert at the end of the Christmas meal. But what it is today, is a long way from where it began, somewhere around the 14^th century. For starters, it included varied meats along with grains and it was cooked in a thickened broth called ‘frumenty’ which could include a range of ingredients, both savoury and sweet along with wine and spirits. It was traditionally aligned with reference to Christ and the twelve apostles, with thirteen ingredients in the recipe.

Through its history, it has evolved into a tastier and sweeter version, much thanks to the Victorians. The Nineteenth century cook Eliza Acton is credited with developing the first proper recipe for Christmas Pudding, appearing in her cookbook Modern Cookery for Private Families. Making your own Christmas Pudding isn’t as difficult as you might think, and it’s well worth having a go at it, because the ones bought in the supermarket are likely to have a number of not-so-good ingredients – almost all of the supermarket Christmas Puddings have palm oil and vegetable glycerol, along with emulsifiers such as E471 and E472e. And though organic versions are much better, you’d be surprised by what can slip in. In fact, many shop-bought puddings fall into the realm of ultra-processed food (UPF) – a category describing foods that are branded, commercial formulations made from cheap ingredients combined with additives, and mostly containing little to no whole foods. A recent study published in The Lancet reports that increased consumption of UPFs is driving multiple diet-related chronic diseases on a global scale.

There are myriad variant recipes for Christmas Pudding, but traditionally it started with mixed dried fruits and nuts playing an important role. Both are high in fibre and polyphenols, and they can sweeten food without the added sugar. They are also rich in antioxidants, and further, the spices in Christmas Pudding have both anti-inflammatory and anti-bacterial properties, so you can feel good about your dessert! Suet is used in most Christmas Puddings to meld the mixture together and it’s generally easy to get from a good butcher. For vegetarians it’s a little trickier as vegetable suet can contain highly processed ingredients – but opting for organic and avoiding formulations that contain hydrogenated vegetable oil can help to steer you towards healthier, more sustainable variants.

Recipes

Here are three home recipes to try this Christmas, each offering a slightly different take – from a tried-and-tested classic to a pudding that makes the most of in-season fruit.

1. This Christmas pudding recipe from BBC Good Food takes a classic approach
2. This steamed pudding uses quince as the fruit – currently in-season in the UK
3. This recipe from Doves Farm is a nice alternative to the traditional Christmas favourite

 

To read the other articles in our ‘Making More of Your Meal’ series, click here.

What’s in your food and how can you eat better? In this series, we look at some staple meals, considering what’s good for you and what’s maybe not – and how you can turn them into dishes that are healthier, better for the planet and alive with flavour.

Fish pie is one of life’s greatest comfort foods – the beautiful flaky pastry (or alternatively, yummy whipped potato topping), the creamy, tangy roux that envelopes the fish, the tasty additions you may love.

But sadly, many of the fish typically used in this dish are from populations on the verge of collapse. A recent report by Oceana UK on the state of UK fishing detailed the troubled waters: “over a quarter (27%) of the UK’s commercial fish populations are overfished to the point of having critically low population sizes, and 25% are being overexploited”. Many prized UK fish and crustaceans continue to be overfished, most notably North Sea cod and crab (in the Southern North Sea). And the most depressing thing about this, is that government bodies have done nothing over the years than to continue business as usual, allowing quotas to overreach scientific thresholds for the health of fish stocks, causing them to decline in peril.

So, what are the options here for that fish pie? Well, luckily there are some.

A good choice is Cornish, gillnet caught hake, which has been gradually replenishing since the early 2000s. In 2015, the Marine Stewardship Council (MSC) certified the fishery as sustainable. Hake is a firm fish, much like cod but much more sustainable, and it’s ideal for fish pie. Also, look at other options such as Scottish haddock, coley and whiting to mix it up a bit. And keep in mind what often gets discarded – cod cheeks for example, which are a succulent overlooked bit of the fish.

A recent report by Oceana UK on the state of UK fishing detailed the troubled waters: “over a quarter (27%) of the UK’s commercial fish populations are overfished to the point of having critically low population sizes, and 25% are being overexploited”.

Sadly, for those who like prawns in their fish pie, they’re really not that sustainable anymore. The best shrimp option in the UK is brown shrimp, but these are caught in a bottom trawl (beam), which is a highly destructive form of fishing associated with a high amount of by-catch (unwanted species that are then discarded). The MSC give wild-caught brown shrimp from The Wash a ‘Best Choice’, but the damage done to the seafloor and the benthic organisms that live there remains problematic, while North Sea shrimp need improvement. Scallops are a delicious alternative for a real treat in your fish pie, but be prepared for the price of them.

Farmed salmon might seem like a good way of avoiding damage to wild stocks, but in reality is best avoided. As well as issues like mass mortality and sea lice, one of the many problems of fish farming is what the fish are fed. In the case of salmon, it takes more than a kilo of wild fish to produce a kilo of farmed salmon.

 

Delia Smith’s Flaky Fish Pie

You don’t have to do Delia’s recipe for fish pie, but it’s a hard one to beat and it’s easy.

This recipe is from The Delia Collection: Fish (serves 4)

Ingredients

For the pastry:

• 8 oz (225 g) plain flour
• 6 oz (175 g) butter
• a pinch of salt
• beaten egg, to glaze

For the filling:

• 12 oz (350 g) any white fish
• freshly milled black pepper
• about 12-15 fl oz (330-425 ml) milk
• 1 oz (25 g) butter
• 2 level tablespoons plain flour
• 1 level tablespoon capers, drained and chopped
• 4 small gherkins, drained and chopped
• 2 level tablespoons chopped parsley
• 2 hard-boiled eggs, chopped
• 1 tablespoon lemon juice

You will also need a baking sheet measuring 14 x 11 inches (35 x 28 cm), greased.

1. Chill the butter for the pastry (in foil) in the freezer for 30-45 minutes. Sift flour and salt and grate the cold butter into the flour, mix with a palette knife, sprinkle 2-3 tbsp of cold water, bring together and chill for 30 minutes.
2. For the filling: poach the fish in just enough milk to cover for 5-10 min, reserve the milk, flake the cooled fish (remove skin/bones) and set aside.
3. Melt butter in the same pan, stir in the flour, cook for 2 minutes, gradually add the reserved milk (300 ml), stirring constantly. Bring to the boil, simmer for 6 minutes, remove from heat and stir in the fish, capers, gherkins, parsley, chopped eggs, lemon juice and salt and pepper. Leave to cool until quite cold.
4. Pre-heat the oven to Gas Mark 7 / 220 °C (425 °F). Roll the pastry to 30 cm square; lift onto a greased baking sheet. Place the cold fish mixture in the centre. Brush the edge of the pastry with the beaten egg. Fold opposite corners to the centre, pinch the edges to make a cross shape and glaze the top and any pastry trimmings with the beaten egg. Bake for about 30 minutes, or until pastry is well risen and golden.

 

To read the other articles in our ‘Making More of Your Meal’ series, click here.

What’s in your food and how can you eat better? In this series, we look at some staple meals, considering what’s good for you and what’s maybe not – and how you can turn them into dishes that are healthier, better for the planet and alive with flavour.

Chicken is a staple in almost every British kitchen, and roast chicken is a ubiquitous Sunday lunch. But over the decades, what was once a weekly family treat, has morphed into an obsession.

In the UK, over a billion chickens a year are consumed, and as we feast endlessly on ‘cheap chicken’, significant damage is being done to the environment, not to mention the lives of the chickens themselves. The rivers Wye, Lugg and Usk are currently at risk due to the pollution caused by the industrial chicken farming along the spread of this territory, and more broadly, chicken farms have been spreading across the country, leaving, for the most part, a trail of poor practice.

So, what can we do to both preserve the value of the chicken we enjoy, whilst also giving them a decent life, even if it’s a short one? Over the years, standards for chickens have improved, but there is still a very long way to go. If you care about the welfare of chickens, which we all should, take some time to find out about the varying standards. For the most part, broiler chickens live short and pretty miserable lives – over 90% of broiler chickens are from intensive systems where they are bred to grow quickly (often suffering from this), given no access to the outdoors and killed within 35 days.

Because of this and because free range systems, while better, still aren’t great, organic is the best option if your budget allows. Organic chickens have a slightly longer – and definitely a better – life. You can also buy direct from farmers who are prioritising animal welfare and agroecological farming practices – while they may not have gone down the organic certification route, they may still be producing top quality chicken from birds that have led better lives. Find a poultry producer or a butcher that values smaller scale chicken production for what’s likely to be a much tastier chicken.

In Cyprus, the Kot-Kot project shows how animals, food waste and farming can be reconnected to restore soils and reduce reliance on chemicals. But as writer and researcher David McKenzie explores, the challenges it faces highlight a broader dilemma: will food systems reward regenerative, mixed models like this – or continue to favour industrial approaches that externalise their costs?

There is no single solution to building sustainable food futures. Nor is there a silver bullet for establishing resilient food systems that can best respond to the unpredictable impacts and challenges of climate change. It will take a concerted effort, with myriad approaches and solutions working together.

Still, some solutions have more of a ‘feel-good’ factor than others. And this might be one of them.

An olive grove in Cyprus has been taking an innovative (yet incredibly simple) approach to enhancing the organic matter of their soil, while also helping combat the island’s serious food waste problem and providing a means of reducing chemical fertiliser and pesticide use. It’s doing this by taking retired hens from the egg industry and having them roam free on the grove, fed by unwanted food-waste collected from local schools, restaurants, hotels and businesses.

The project, called Kot-Kot, has been running since early 2024 at Akaki Grove, 30 kilometers west of the capital Nicosia. It was instigated by farmer Elena Christoforos, who inherited the semi-abandoned olive grove from her grandfather, and Nicolas Netien, an environmental engineer and soil biologist who Christoforos brought on board in 2021 to help revive the olive and citrus trees.

“My focus is always on growing soil,” says Netien, who has been designing agro-ecological systems in line with a permaculture framework for 20 years. “I grow soil and let the trees grow themselves.”

Within that framework, Netien looks for any and every technique to increase organic matter in the soil, he says, focusing on maintaining a healthy microbiome for the trees’ root systems. In line with this, a diverse ground cover of plants was first established at Akaki Grove to enrich and protect the soil. But Netien wanted to “speed up” these natural processes and carbon cycles by having animals grazing the ground cover.

Christoforos agreed, but as a vegan, she has a zero-kill policy at the grove, instead favouring the maintenance of balanced, diverse ecosystems in which pests kill each other. She insisted that they could only do it if the animals were not to be killed or used for egg, meat or milk production.

That’s where the “happy hens” come in. Animals are expensive to keep and to feed, and if they weren’t going to have them for meat, egg or dairy production then it made sense, as Netien puts it, to find animals that nobody wants. Chickens, in particular, are “great workers” for the olive trees, since they not only clear the ground cover and unwanted weeds, reverting nutrients back into the soil via their fertile droppings but also provide excellent pest control by pecking at the larvae of insects like the infamous olive fly, traditional adversary of Mediterranean olive growers.

And so, with the help of free-range egg farmer and olive grower Nicholas Schizas, Kot-Kot managed to adopt a few hundred two-year-old hens coming out of the egg industry, who have finished their productive laying years and otherwise would’ve been slaughtered (yet still with plenty of ‘retirement’ years ahead, having a life expectancy of eight years or more).

From there, the next issue was sourcing food for the hens. Again, without any income that would usually come from egg or meat production, this needed to be cheap (if not free).

Coincidentally, however, Cyprus has a terrible food waste problem.

Cyprus generates by far the most food waste per capita of any country in Europe at around 300 kg per year, more than double the EU average of 132 kg/inhabitant. To make matters worse, the island nation’s waste management system has been mired in scandal and mismanagement for years, leading to hefty fines from the EU for continuously failing to meet waste management targets and failing to establish adequate facilities for processing mixed municipal waste (including organic waste), despite heavy EU funding specifically for such projects since at least 2015.

What’s in your food and how can you eat better? In this series, we look at some staple meals, considering what’s good for you and what’s maybe not – and how you can turn them into dishes that are healthier, better for the planet and alive with flavour.

Porridge is one of the nation’s favourite breakfasts – simple, comforting and delicious. Each time we begin the day with a steaming bowl of oats, we are honouring an age-old tradition. The humble oat grain, grown in the UK since Roman times, has sustained many generations of our ancestors.

Oats are not only delicious but are also an incredible ally in your health. They contain beta-glucan, a fibre which lowers cholesterol and regulates blood sugar. It also promotes regular bowel movements which support a healthy gut biome. The protein level of oats is high for a grain, and they are full of vitamins and minerals as well as having anti-inflammatory properties.

Porridge is incredibly simple to prepare: with two ingredients and a saucepan, you can have breakfast in front of you in less than 10 minutes. But beware of the packaging-heavy, expensive ‘instant’ oats, found on many supermarket shelves that are laden with additives. There’s no need! Just make sure you read the fine print when you choose your oats – the only ingredient should be ‘oats’.

And definitely go organic. We can source organic oats from the UK and, with some local additions, whip up a sustainable breakfast every morning.

Here are two ways with porridge, both of which take the simple dish to exciting places.

Savoury porridge

We all know that porridge is great when combined with sweet ingredients and that local honey and seasonal fruit are great toppings which also minimise food miles. But savoury porridge is also wonderful and harks back to the dishes origins (it was originally seasoned with salt).

Prepare porridge using your favourite method and then try these options:

• Crack in a local, pastured egg just before serving, mix in well, then season the dish with salt and pepper
• Stir in miso, along with ground British linseed or peanut butter
• Steam a big handful of spinach and nestle that, plus a poached egg, on top of your oats

Fermented oats

Oats become even easier to digest and more nutritious when they’re fermented. The probiotics go to work pre-digesting the carbohydrates and, even after cooking, the resulting porridge is full of immune-supporting goodness. In addition to this, fermented oats are a flavour explosion – they have a tanginess that can be addictive!

The process is very simple. Here’s how to prepare fermented oats for two people:

• 120g rolled oats
• 20g ‘starter’ – yogurt, sourdough starter, milk kefir or apple cider vinegar (it must be unpasteurised)

Measure the oats into a bowl, top with ample water and stir in the starter. Cover this and leave it on the counter overnight. Next morning, pour the entire contents of the bowl into a saucepan and cook as normal.

What’s in your food and how can you eat better? In this series, we look at some staple meals, considering what’s good for you and what’s maybe not – and how you can turn them into dishes that are healthier, better for the planet and alive with flavour.

In our busy lives, convenience often trumps nutrition – and it’s easy to reach for the same familiar meals, with a few favourites on regular rotation. But what if those everyday go-tos could be made better for your health, the planet and your local economy, without losing what you love about them in the first place? That’s the idea behind this mini-series, where we take a closer look at some classic dishes and store-cupboard staples to find out what’s really in them – and how small changes can make a big difference. From the ingredients list to the source of your food, we’ll explore simple tweaks and swaps that prioritise sustainability and nutrition, while keeping things practical and delicious.

First up: the humble beans on toast – a British staple that’s cheap, comforting, and can be more of a nutritional powerhouse than it gets credit for.

Beans on Toast

Beans on toast has got to be one of the classic go-to quick meals for lunch or dinner. Beans are having something of a moment (particularly on social media where they are ubiquitous among health obsessed bloggers seeking meat-less protein and there are some really tasty recipes to be had), but beans really are a fantastic superfood that delivers. For starters, they are full of fibre and plant-based protein, rich in vitamins and minerals, and helpful in reducing blood pressure. One study also found that eating a cup of beans daily reduced cholesterol levels in people with high cholesterol.

But while beans have much to offer in a quick meal, it’s still important to make sure that the other ingredients in your meal meet the same standards. Does your toast have eighteen ingredients or just four? Is the sauce your beans are stewed in loaded with sugar and salt or other heavily processed ingredients? If so, you’re not doing yourself any favours.

So, here’s our two takes on ‘Beans on Toast’ – one pretty traditional and one that sits outside the box.

DIY: Beans on Toast

It doesn’t take much to make your own ‘Beans on Toast’ and the freedom to pull in those things you like best will rev-up your meal.

Suggested add-ons: mushrooms (great to make your beans more substantial; suggest cooking in butter at the start and incorporating with other ingredients once cooked), bacon (don’t scrimp – buy good quality bacon from high welfare pigs), a melty cheese, onions, garlic, bit of smoky paprika.

• 2 tbsp tomato paste
• Chopped tomatoes (fresh or canned)
• Can of haricot beans with a splash of Worcestershire sauce and sugar to taste
• Mix together and simmer for about 20 minutes
• And most importantly, pour beans onto good quality bread

Broad beans, peas and tomatoes

On a hot summer day, the idea of beans on toast might seem a little overwhelming. But you can turn this on its head for a fresh yet filling meal that comes together super quickly.

• 250g broad beans
• 150g peas
• A small handful of cherry tomatoes (organic is a must), lightly grilled
• As much feta cheese as you like, though keep in mind it can overwhelm the flavours
• A drizzle of good quality olive oil on your toast (sourdough is best) with a smattering also on the beans, peas and tomatoes, along with a bit of salt and pepper
• Top with a few fresh herbs – mint and thyme are especially nice

Kicking off our latest series of articles exploring the transformative power of on-farm education, the SFT’s Head of Projects, Bonnie Welch, examines how farm visits can help to reconnect young people with nature and the story behind their food.

Today, many of us spend most of our time indoors, often in front of a screen and disconnected from the natural world. And yet we know, intuitively, that spending time outdoors and in nature helps us to feel well.

If intuition isn’t enough, there’s also a growing body of evidence demonstrating the positive link between exposure to natural environments and positive mental and physical health outcomes. For instance, spending time in a woodland or garden, or having the opportunity to grow food, can improve mental wellbeing and reduce stress, anxiety and depression.

For young people today, connection with nature is particularly important, as according to research, in many countries young people are more likely to struggle with their mental health than previous generations. With children and young adults spending much of their time at school or college, taking learning out of the classroom offers an opportunity to increase exposure to and engagement with the natural world.

Nature-based learning, such as on school grounds and field trips, has been shown not only to improve social and psychological outcomes, but also educational attainment, attendance and motivation. According to WWF’s Schools for Nature report, “pupils who learn through and in nature, have an advantage over their peers whose learning is solely classroom based”. However, the research, involving 1,885 schools from across the UK, revealed that over a third of primary schools and half of secondary schools offer no outdoor learning opportunities at all. The report also points to what some are calling a “nature gap”, referring to the disparity in who participates in outdoor learning, with young people from low-income families and ethnic minorities less likely to have such opportunities.

In an attempt to tackle this issue, the Nature Premium Campaign, a specialist group led by the Institute for Outdoor Learning, are calling for Government to fund regular and ongoing nature experiences for all children and young people, with additional funding and support for those who need it most.

Alongside this, the Government’s National Educational Nature Park, launched in 2023 by the Department for Education, the Natural History Museum, the Royal Horticultural Society and partners, aims to offer children and young people the opportunity to take hands-on action to improve biodiversity and tackle climate change. The offer to educators includes access to resources, digital tools and activities, as well as a virtual nature park signposting green spaces across England. The ambition is to encourage more young people to take action to improve their local environment for people and nature.

Putting sustainability and nature at the heart of teaching and learning is the core mission of the educational charity, The Harmony Project, led by former primary school headteacher Richard Dunne. The Harmony Project offers an approach to education that promotes learning from nature, in addition to learning about nature and in nature. This is what they call the ‘Natural Curriculum’, which enables young people to develop a more connected, systemic way of seeing and understanding the world and their place in it.

What role can farms play?

The farming systems that produce our food have a considerable, and often damaging impact on the environment. However, they also have the potential to help restore biodiversity, regenerate local ecosystems and rebuild soil carbon. The food choices we make are therefore of great importance.

Increasing nature connectedness (the relationship between people and the rest of nature) has shown to also improve pro nature behaviour in young people. And so, reconnecting young people with the story behind their food, could serve as a critical tool in encouraging them to act in a way that protects and enhances nature, for instance, by opting for certain foods over others, or by taking an active interest in sustainable food and farming – perhaps considering it as a career.

During a recent Sustainable Food Trust (SFT) podcast, Alice Pawsey, an organic farmer from Suffolk and a member of the SFT’s newly launched Beacon Farms Network (which brings together sustainable and regenerative farms acting as educational platforms), spoke of why farms are the perfect stage for learning.

“The possibilities for farm visits are boundless. They are exciting, they are engaging, and they reinforce just about every single element of the curriculum – from English to music, to PSHE, to science and biology.

 

 The rewards are unbelievable for children, particularly for those children that don’t do very well in school. They seem always to thrive on a school visit! I had a child who jumped in the ice and thought it was glass. They’d never experienced jumping in a puddle…and continued to jump in every puddle they could find for the whole day.

 

 It’s a no-brainer for Government to support school visits [to farms]. The farms are there, and the schools are there. There’s an untapped educational resource just waiting to be joined up.”

As part of the Beacon Farms Network, the SFT has been working closely with The Harmony Project to develop templates and resources to support school visits to farms. Each of the resources will be linked to key subject areas such as science, geography, history and design technology (DT). The National Curriculum in England already requires DT teachers to look at how food has been grown, reared, caught or processed. Richard Dunne believes this presents an opportunity to bring nature into the classroom and indeed to take the learning beyond the classroom.

“One of our goals is to help teachers and educators learn more about the food and farming systems that produce our food. In design technology, the focus on cookery and nutrition is mainly around developing culinary skills. Whilst this is important, we are encouraging teachers to explore cookery and nutrition as a three-step process.

 

 Firstly, to research the story of where our food comes from, including its provenance, the farming system that grew or produced it, and the impact of that system on climate, nature and health.

 

 Secondly, to develop the practical skills of cooking, so that young people know how to cook healthy meals from scratch.

 

 And thirdly, to consider who they will share their food with, as the essence of a good meal is that it is shared with family, friends or others in the community.

 

 Throughout this journey of learning, there are also opportunities to link learning to real life examples of where food comes from,  for example, through food growing projects in school and farm visits. This more holistic approach provides children with a much greater understanding of the story of their food, not just how to cook and eat what they buy.”

Whilst farm visits provide an excellent opportunity for young people to build greater connections with nature whilst learning about the systems that produce our food, at present, school trips in the UK are often irregular and optional. It is therefore essential that the Government works together with charities, organisations and businesses to increase the availability and diversity of outdoor learning opportunities, so that they are available to all young people, regardless of geography or socio-economic background.

Organisations like Farms for City Children, LEAF Education and The Country Trust, as well as the Beacon Farms Network, are among those already working with schools to offer experiential learning opportunities for young people on farms across the UK. Providing more memorable and meaningful nature experiences will, with any luck, improve educational outcomes, as well as being good for mental and physical health, and for nature.

We recently launched the Beacon Farms Network, which brings together sustainable and regenerative farms acting as educational platforms to inspire young people and adults about the story behind their food. Find out more about the Network here.

Featured image taken by Jason Taylor.

In 2019, we published our Action Plan for Greener Prisons report which suggested that increased access to nature, including horticulture and gardening activities, could improve the mental health and wellbeing of prison inmates. Drawing on this research, our Senior Research Officer, Imogen Crossland, explores the rehabilitative potential of growing, cooking and eating good food in prisons.

Food is an essential part of day-to-day life. We need it to sustain ourselves, both in body and mind, but it also serves so many purposes beyond this. Whether it’s the joy of sharing a meal with loved ones or connecting with our cultural identity, a good meal can provide a moment of comfort, even on the toughest of days.

For the nearly 95,000 people living in prisons across the UK, food offers almost none of these things. Reviews into the state of prison food systems have found shocking results. A report by His Majesty’s Inspectorate of Prisons (HMIP) sums up the situation:

“… too often the quantity and quality of the food provided is insufficient, and the conditions in which it is served and eaten undermine respect for prisoners’ dignity. This does little to improve, what for many prisoners, is a history of an unhealthy lifestyle. It also potentially jeopardises prisoner and staff safety.”

While there is variation from prison to prison, some aspects of the meals are all too common across the prison estate. Lunch – often a sandwich – is served as early as 11am, and dinner (normally a carb-heavy hot meal), is served from 4pm. A breakfast pack (with a portion size described as being suitable for a small child) for the next day is handed out with dinner but usually gets eaten the same evening. Fresh fruit and vegetables are hard to come by and the snacks which are available from the prison tuck shop, or ‘canteen’, are mostly ultra-processed. Contrary to what many might envisage, most prison meals in the UK are eaten by prisoners alone in their cells. There are few opportunities to cook properly, and many prisoners will use kettles to cook their own food, which is not especially safe, and even fewer are able to grow food.

Some might ask why this matters at all – prison is, after all, seen as a form of punishment. The idea that poor-quality food should contribute to this punishment stems back to the birth of modern prisons in Victorian times. A principle known as ‘less-eligibility’ was written into the Poor Laws of 1834. It dictated that conditions in prisons and workhouses, including meals, should be worse than those experienced by the labouring poor, so as to disincentivise crime. While this principle has long been abolished, it remains ingrained to some extent in the public consciousness, fuelled by newspaper headlines about the ‘luxuries’ being afforded to undeserving prisoners.

“Contrary to what many might envisage, most prison meals in the UK are eaten by prisoners alone in their cells. There are few opportunities to cook properly, and many prisoners will use kettles to cook their own food, which is not especially safe, and even fewer are able to grow food.”

Reframing the role of food

In reality, transforming the role of food in prison offers significant potential to improve the health and wellbeing of prisoners – something which benefits not only the prisoners themselves but the entire prison service and society as a whole.

Simply improving nutritional intake can have a major impact, as three separate double-blind trials in the UK, US and the Netherlands have found. Providing a basic supplement containing vitamins, minerals and (in one case) omega-3 to prisoners, led to a reduction in the number of violent incidents of approximately one third, in comparison with a group taking a ‘placebo’ pill. That’s a staggering statistic which clearly recognises the links between diet and brain health – for which there is mounting scientific evidence. This is a potential solution which could be cost-effective for prisons to adopt now – but there are countless reasons why it’s worth going further than simply providing a pill.

While more difficult to measure, qualitative and anecdotal evidence is stacking up to shed light on the benefits of transforming prison meals, by offering more opportunities to grow, cook and connect with food, developing a richer food culture in prisons.

Making these kinds of improvements represents a serious challenge. For example, the list of available ingredients for prison food is determined by a single, national procurement contract for the whole prison estate, while the budget for prison food currently sits at around £3 per person per day, to cover all three meals. In comparison, the figure for schools is £2.65 per day for just one meal.

However, despite these constraints, the charity Food Behind Bars has been working with prisons and their catering teams to make meals healthier, tastier and more culturally diverse. They aim to scale their work up nationally, helping to reach as many prisons as possible.

“While more difficult to measure, qualitative and anecdotal evidence is stacking up to shed light on the benefits of transforming prison meals, by offering more opportunities to grow, cook and connect with food, developing a richer food culture in prisons.”

Food Behind Bars also run food education sessions and courses, from butchery to beekeeping, which help participants to develop skills, both practical and ‘soft’ skills like communication and teamwork. Initiatives like these, such as cooking classes and sharing meals around a table (something that many in prison aren’t able to experience), and learning how to grow fruit and vegetables, have outcomes that consistently report improvements in mental health, self-esteem, social skills and confidence.

Bronwen Percival is the Buyer and Technical Director at Neal’s Yard Dairy. She’s been engaged with artisan cheese since she started as a cheesemonger at the Dairy. Not a native to the UK, she grew up in San Diego, California, where her grandfather was a dairy producer. She works with over 40 cheese producers across the UK and Ireland and has co-authored ‘Reinventing the Wheel: Milk, Microbes and the Fight for Real Cheese’ with her husband Francis Percival.

 

SFT: Many people are aware of the leadership that Neal’s Yard Dairy (NYD) have shown not only in convening the artisan cheese making community of the UK but also in developing markets for named artisan cheeses based on the story behind their production – not just in the UK but throughout the world. What are the motivations that inspire you and your team to do this work?

Bronwen Percival: I think there are a number of different ways to answer this question, because we all have many, many motivations. The whole idea of connecting a name and a story to a cheese as it gets to the market, is quite transformative for British cheese. In some ways it’s antithetical to commodity production which is all about taking interchangeable raw materials and turning them into interchangeable non-differentiated cheese – along that path, a lot of those farmhouse cheeses lose the identity that is associated with the producer.

It’s not enough to just sell cheese; what’s really important is to sell that cheese connected to an individual identity that meets the market and where excellent quality is therefore rewarded because people will come back and ask not for Neal’s Yard Dairy cheddar but for Hafod cheddar or Montgomery’s cheddar. That was pretty radical in the late 1970s and early 80s when Neal’s Yard Dairy got started in Covent Garden. It’s less radical today, but I still feel it’s fundamental to what we do. We’re the bridge between the individual small producers and the market and we are tasting every batch and talking to customers about how each batch is different and trying to match the right cheese to the right customer. It’s that simple.

There’s also another way to answer that question, which is that diversity is an important thing. We talk about the importance of diversity in a field with different types of plants or the diversity of the genomes of the cows that [make our cheeses], but we live in a world of rapidly reducing diversity and the same applies to the market. Losing that diversity, as businesses scale up and we get fewer options, is a real risk to our food system and it’s a risk to taste and flavour as well.

So, the work that we do is really about protecting that diversity. Championing that within the market sometimes means selling tiny amounts of cheeses that are made in [small-scale] production. I don’t know how financially viable that is, because, at the end of the day, they’re only a minute fraction of what we do, but it’s still a really important part of our mission and it’s what will set us apart.

“We’re the bridge between the individual small producers and the market and we are tasting every batch and talking to customers about how each batch is different and trying to match the right cheese to the right customer. It’s that simple.”

SFT: We know that your operation includes retail, wholesale and export, but what is the ratio of sales in each area and which countries buy cheeses from NYD? 

BP: That’s a very good question! It’s split – about 25% of our sales are through our retail shops in London. We have three shops and another one possibly on its way and we have an ecommerce department, which is a form of retail as well. Fifty percent of our sales go through our domestic wholesale to shops and restaurants all over the UK, and the final 25% is on export. That’s as a percentage of the volume of the cheese.

Which countries buy cheese from NYD? We ship cheese all over the world. We sell cheese to the US, throughout Europe, Australia, Singapore, Hong Kong, and some goes to Peru and Japan. It’s kind of an eclectic mixture.

But when people flippantly say, ‘oh, we’ll find other markets abroad’, I think they are forgetting that [continental] Europe is an incredibly sophisticated market when it comes to cheese consumption. People eat cheese seriously, more seriously than we do here in the UK.

Together with the Sustainable Food Trust, the Ellen MacArthur Foundation has launched the Big Food Redesign Challenge where, currently, over 60 organisations are bringing more than 150 products to life. This is an exciting project that brings together ambitious producers, retailers, start-ups and suppliers to produce food that will actively help nature to thrive – and do it in a way that can be scaled. Here, we hear the latest about the Challenge from the Foundation’s Food Team.