Sheffield researchers have contributed to a special issue of The Royal Society journal Philosophical Transactions B, on ‘Transforming terrestrial food systems for human and planetary health’.
The special issue, published today (18 September 2025), draws together the findings from a £47.5 million, five-year-long, UKRI-funded research programme, Transforming UK Food Systems (TUKFS). The programme began in 2021 to transform the UK food system by placing healthy people and a healthy natural environment at its centre. One of the four main research consortia, the H3 project, was led from Sheffield.
Contributors to the issue include Co-Directors of the Institute for Sustainable Food (ISF), Professor Louise Dye and Professor Peter Jackson, and ISF members, Dr Neil Boyle and Professor Peter Horton FRS.
This special issue identifies workable paths towards transforming UK food systems, delivered via a series of interventions.
Some of the programme’s recommendations, which could offer timely evidence and recommendations for consideration as the Government's food strategy develops, include:
- Healthier school breakfasts: trials show children accept higher-fibre bread when it’s offered. Simple tweaks could help close the ~6g average “fibre gap” in UK school children’s intake.
- Make healthy food more affordable: expand voucher schemes for low-income households to improve access to affordable, healthy and more sustainable food options.
- Clear, combined labels at a glance: a new “Sus-Health Index” could standardise and simplify food labelling to provide a pragmatic indicator of a food or meal’s combined nutritional and environmental value to guide shoppers.
- Make surplus food work harder: move from guidance to legislation so usable “waste” food is redistributed by default to disadvantaged groups, potentially helping thousands of families.
- Lower-carbon hospital meals, with no recipe changes needed: smartly swapping dishes on menus could cut carbon emissions from meals by ~19.5% and reduce saturated fat by ~15.7% across NHS sites.
- Put more UK-grown pulses on plates: incentivise British beans and peas – which are healthier, climate-friendly and a boost for UK farmers.
The findings support the adoption of regenerative farming practices, the provision of healthier school meals and measures to improve the resilience of UK food systems. The research addresses the global challenges of food security and sustainability and diet-related health challenges such as obesity.
The research will have short-term impact in terms of the evidence it provides for the UK Government's food strategy. Its longer-term impact will be to contribute to the health and sustainability of UK food systems, mitigating climate change (where food systems currently account for around one-third of greenhouse gas emissions), improving biodiversity, and addressing major public health challenges.
The full list of recommendations is detailed in the final chapter of the special issue which can be found here.
Co-Director of the Institute for Sustainable Food, Professor Peter Jackson, said, "The TUKFS programme was a once in a lifetime opportunity to gather the evidence we need to increase the health and sustainability of our broken food system. Several colleagues from our Institute are authors of today's landmark publication which we hope will lead to transformative change in government, business and civil society."
The TUKFS programme is a five-year investment, concluding in 2026. Future funding is already secured for related work including (at Sheffield) the Co-Centre for Sustainable Food Systems and the National Alternative Protein Innovation Centre (NAPIC).