British Nutrition Foundation

The BNF aims to give the general public, educators and organisations access to reliable information on nutrition. Its website provides details on healthy, sustainable diets, on nutrition at different life stages, on diet in relation to health issues and on putting advice on diet and nutrition into practice.[4] Training is provided through online courses and webinars, with past webinars available on the website, together with videos of previous annual conferences. The organisation runs an annual “Healthy Eating Week” each June.[5]

The BNF manages the educational programme Food – a fact of life (FFL). This is designed to support teachers by providing accessible information on diet and health for children and young people progressively through the ages 3 years to 16+ years. It was originally launched in 1991 in a partnership with MAFF that continued until 1997. The BNF continued to develop the educational resources and from 2018 the FFL programme has been a partnership between the BNF and the Agriculture and Horticulture Development Board.[6]

The official journal of the BNF, Nutrition Bulletin, is an international, peer-reviewed journal published quarterly by Wiley.[7] Its coverage has included review articles and news items on nutrition, but since acquisition of an impact factor and MEDLINE coverage an increasing number of papers reporting original research have been included;[8] many articles are open-access.

Under its Memorandum and Articles of Association, the Board may comprise no more than 12 Trustees. Trustees are appointed by the Board and serve for a term of three years, with each Trustee able to serve for a maximum of nine years; membership of the Board is weighted towards the scientific academic community.[9] As a charity largely funded by corporate donations from food industry organisations, the BNF maintains its independence through advisory and scientific committees, an Editorial Advisory Board, educational working groups and a register of interests for Board members and senior managers.[10]

In 2021-22, the charity had an income of £1.35million, with an expenditure of £1.33million.[1]

A 1985 World in Action documentary interviewed Derek Shrimpton, a previous director general at BNF, who said: "In the period I was there the foundation was solely taken up with defence actions for the industry." He also said that BNF worked to frustrate government committees working on policies to reduce sugar, salt, and fat consumption.[11]

In 2005, 26 UK MPs signed an Early Day Motion in Parliament concerning the BNF advising the government on food nutrition while receiving funds from the food industry.[12]

Further concerns about the BNF's relationship with the food industry were raised in a 2010 British Medical Journal article, also published in a shortened form in The Independent, which criticized the way in which the BNF was treated as a source of impartial nutritional information by the media, usually without describing the industry ties, with funding members including, for example, Cadbury, Kellogg and McDonalds. It also criticized the UK government for paying the BNF to develop educational materials on nutrition, and quoted Tim Lobstein, a director at the International Association for the Study of Obesity-International Obesity Task Force (now the World Obesity Federation), saying that some BNF educational materials seem to support industry messages.[11][13]

• British Nutrition Foundation (2022). "Annual Trustees' Report and Accounts 2021-2022". UK Charity Commission for England and Wales. Retrieved 18 September 2023. Text was copied from this source, which is available under an Open Government Licence v3.0. © Crown copyright.

• Nutrition Bulletin journal homepage