Food Policy on Trial: In the dock - plain packaging on junk food & drink

Our Food Policy on Trial events explore selected emerging food policy ideas at inquiry-style sessions. Expert witnesses provide evidence and are then questioned by both a Food Ethics Council jury panel and members of the audience. Those attending can make their own considered judgements of whether the policy idea ‘on trial’ is likely to contribute to or hinder progress towards healthy, fair, environmentally sustainable, humane food and farming.

They are designed primarily for policymakers and policy influencers, but are also open to interested members of the general public.

Our second emerging policy idea ‘in the dock’ is a plain packaging on the 'worst offending' food and drink products (as used for tobacco). We’re not starting from the premise that plain packaging is necessarily a good or bad thing but we want to critically explore the merits and pitfalls of this potential policy. We welcome your participation and questions - the audience will get an opportunity, after our jury panel, to ask questions of our expert witnesses. We encourage you to form your own judgement as to whether a plain packaging has the potential to contribute to fair, sustainable food systems or not.

Our expert witnesses will be:
• Alex Haigh, Valuation Director, Brand Finance (produced a report on brand value impact of introducing plain packaging on certain food & beverages)
• Craig Mawdsley, Joint Chief Strategy Officer, AMV BBDO (leading creative agency)
• Dr Helen Crawley, Director, First Steps Nutrition, dietitian & registered nutritionist
• Ben Pugh, co-founder and CEO, Farmdrop (online grocer)

Our jurors consist of members of the Food Ethics Council:
• Jon Alexander
• Dr Julian Baggini
• Chloe Donovan
• Emeritus Professor Liz Dowler
• Jo Lewis

‘Food policy on trial’ sessions are run by the Food Ethics Council and are a way of encouraging constructive debate about possible policy ideas relating to food and farming. We will run up to three ‘food policy on trial’ sessions each year. This series is kindly supported by Esmée Fairbairn Foundation and the Polden Puckham Charitable Foundation.