The Centre for Food Policy, housed at City St George’s, University of London (CSGL) in the United Kingdom (UK), is an interdisciplinary research hub dedicated to redesigning food systems for fairness, health, sustainability, and resilience. For nutritionists and dietitians, the Centre’s work is valuable as it applies a systems lens to connect nutrition outcomes with environmental, economic, and social factors, equipping professionals with tools to influence policy on sustainable diets, food environments, and health equity. Amid global challenges like climate change and inequality, their interdisciplinary approach supports evidence-driven advocacy for food systems that nourish people and planet.
The Centre has three themes:
1– shaping sustainable food systems,
2– facilitating equitable practices through policy, and
3– innovating in food policy research and training.
Activities fall into four core pillars that are strategically linked to the three research themes:
1 – Evidence: evidence-based food policy & practice by generating & disseminating a variety of evidence
2 – Education: building capacity and skills for food systems redesign by educating on food policy
3 – Impact: delivering tangible impact on food policy & practice through building networks & contributing directly to policy development
4 – Discussion – promoting cutting-edge thinking for food systems redesign, providing spaces & opportunities for discussion & debate
Activities include generating data on food system dynamics (from producers to policymakers), delivering a Master of Science (MSc) in Food Policy (running over 20 years), Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) programs, Continuing Professional Development (CPD) courses, and collaborations like the UK Food Systems Centre for Doctoral Training (CDT) and projects such as Sustainable and Healthy Food Systems (SHEFS) in South Africa, India, and the UK. They host symposia, policy briefs, webinars, and networks to drive real-world impact on obesity, local partnerships, and diet-related policy coherence.
Once a month, Food Thinkers invites experts from across the food system to talk about their work and share how they see the world of food policy. These live webinars are an opportunity to engage with people who play an active part in food policy-making.
The Food Research Collaboration was an initiative of the Centre for Food Policy that ceased in 2023, after nine years of operations. All of their publications remain accessible; however, the site and related email accounts are no longer being maintained or updated. Their role was to facilitate joint working between academics, civil society organisations, and others to improve the sustainability of the UK food system, and to make academic knowledge available wherever it may be useful. It was funded by Esmée Fairbairn Foundation. They published a variety of reports, including Evidence Papers, Discussion Papers, Policy Briefings, and Policy Briefs, by a range of authors from academia and civil society. They aimed to present robust, referenced information in clear, jargon-free language.
We highlight one example here:
The food marketing environment: A force for or against human and planetary health?
Haffner, T. and Culliford, A. (2023) The food marketing environment: A force for or against human and planetary health?. Food Research Collaboration Policy Insight. ISBN: 978-1-903957-80-6
This Policy Insight examines how the food marketing environment (traditional advertising, online marketing, and marketing strategies) contributes to diet-related ill health. The authors analyse how the considerable power of food companies could be leveraged to drive change towards healthier and more sustainable diets. They recommend alternative policies that would ban or restrict the advertising of unhealthy foods and instead increase marketing and promotion of healthy foods that can help enable a shift towards healthier, sustainable diets.
- Amy Culliford started her career as a process engineer in the food industry, then spent three years working as a regulatory officer at the Environment Agency, where she audited industrial sites to ensure compliance with environmental legislation, including many UK-based food manufacturers. She went on to study public health nutrition, specializing in environmentally sustainable diets. She works as a consultant, collaborating on a variety of research projects.
- Tanya Haffner is a dietitian and is the CEO & strategic lead on nutrition and sustainability at MyNutriWeb and Nutrilicious. MyNutriWeb is a learning hub on nutrition for professionals and change agents in food, awarded the best nutrition resource of the year 2021 and 2022 by CN publications and Nutrition Graduates. Nutrilicious is a specialised consultancy and marketing agency supporting organisations and brands in building their credentials and communications on nutrition and sustainability. Tanya received the Caroline Walker Trust Award for Best Freelance Nutritionist of the Year 2021 and the Outstanding Achiever Award from the British Dietetic Association in 2022 for founding MyNutriWeb & Nutrilicious.
updated 2026 February
Transparency | Diversity | Dynamism | Evidence-based |