Following on from last week’s post which was a summary of the latest NDNS report, this week I’m highlighting an important piece of research carried out by the not-for-profit organisation Bite Back. Bite Back is a youth activist movement challenging the UK food system, their recent report focuses on the out of home food sector (OOH), a large and significant part of the UK food environment which is expanding and for good reason as highlighted in the NDNS survey, more people than ever are utilising this option especially young people (UK Government, 2025). The recent NDNS survey showed that food consumed OOH contributes to a large percentage of overall calories, fat, salt and sugar intake, which is unsurprising considering the findings of a previous Bite Back study that found 7 out of 10 businesses in the UK are reliant on selling products that are high in fat, salt and sugar (HFSS) (Bite Back, 2024) .
This recent study carried out by Bite Back reported a number of major findings:
- The top 10 most popular food chains with young people continued to open more outlets in the UK over the last 10 years. Growth ranged from 16% to 93%, the fast-food outlets grew by almost 50% and with the exception of Subway this upward trajectory shows no sign of levelling off.
- All of the food outlets listed have opened close to schools, 10.3% of schools in the UK had at least one of these outlets within 400m of the school gates in 2014, this rose to 14.2% in 2024. Half of the top 10 are estimated to have at least half of their outlets close to schools
- All of the top 10 food outlets increased in density within the most and least deprived areas of the UK but, half of the outlets have a higher density of outlets in the most deprived areas compared to least deprived.
Childhood obesity rates have risen by 3% in England over the last decade and this is even more prevalent within deprived areas where almost 3 in 10 children are obese (NHS Digital, 2024). The cause of obesity is multifaced, but it is clear that OOH eating is a contributory factor and a significant part of our food environment that is growing.
Bite Back is calling for these food outlets to phase out the marketing of unhealthy products and shift sales to healthier products. It is calling on the UK government to update national planning guidance allowing local authorities to create a healthier food environment and extend further restrictions on unhealthy food marketing. If you want to find out more and support these amazing young activists go to www.biteback2030.com/take-action/
References
Bite Back (2024). Fuel us, don’t fool us: Manufacturers (Reports 1-3)
NHS Digital (2024). National Childhood Measurement Programme 2023/24
UK Government (2025) National Diet and Nutrition Survey 2019 to 2023: report – GOV.UK
MLT Nutrition 