Former social worker Silvia Ross and former Food Standards Agency employee Mike Pender responded to an article about repairing the failed food system in the UK

Last modified on Monday, December 6, 2021 at 13.32 EST

As a retired child protection social worker, I have always believed that the link between obesity and socioeconomic status would benefit from some straightforward analysis ("We need to break the junk food cycle": How to repair the failed food system in the UK, 11 30th). Sometimes it’s not because you’re too poor to buy nutritious food; it’s more about subculture-more social than economic.

So, what have I experienced? I checked the client’s kitchen cabinets to see what they were feeding the children, and many of them were indeed garbage. I placed working-class children in middle-class foster families, where they bitterly complained about being fed organic fruits instead of potato chips and soda.

I have seen the contact center fail to prevent visiting parents from bringing their children the least nutritious food imaginable. This has nothing to do with income; it is indeed often about the food culture of the working class and middle-class "good-doers" who have tried but failed to tell them what to do in a time-honored way, and encountered deep-rooted resistance.

In a way, it is historical: manual workers, after the industrial revolution, stuffed as many cheap calories as possible-white bread, sugar, jam. In a way, this is poverty or the pain of being marginalized. It takes a little bit to cheer you up and dull the edges of it, whether it's cookies or cigarettes.

To some extent, I'm not sure everyone knows how to cook from scratch, how to make cheap ingredients attractive. There are also some thoughts about this idea: "Why should I do this when I can get something ready-made?" Even the food bank reports that people like tea, coffee and sugar because it makes them feel cared for , While malnutrition is increasing.

These are not easy to eliminate factors, and may require generational transition and reduce inequality in society. But let us start with a clear examination of multiple causes. Sylvia Rose Totnes, Devon

Your article says that Tim Lang, professor emeritus of food policy at Metropolitan University of London, believes that the Food Standards Agency is not suitable for implementing the national food strategy because as a non-ministerial government department, it "lack of access to do anything meaningful."

I believe that being an independent government agency is beneficial to FSA. FSA was established in 2000 to protect public health and the broader interests of consumers in food.

The agency’s website states that its “policies, decisions, and recommendations are based on the best available scientific evidence and analysis, including advice from independent experts.” Crucially, it operates in a transparent manner, holds board meetings in public, and is committed to publicizing its recommendations to ministers.

Therefore, the government must be more open than usual and explain precisely why it deliberately ignored or rejected the FSA’s deliberate and fair recommendations.

I think most of us would prefer to see any debate on the implementation of the national food strategy openly, rather than behind closed doors in an anonymous government department. Mike Pender Former Director of Agriculture, Welsh Food Standards Agency

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