Tell Big Food CEOs: Protect Our Health

Young activists Dev & Maya are standing on a busy pavement in front of a digivan that displays an image of hands reaching towards a child with burgers and candy and the caption 'Junk Food has us surrounded". They are speaking to a camera man holding a large camera. Dev is a young brown man with his black hair cut into a bowl cut and thick eye brows and Maya is a girl with a very pale complexion and dirty blonde straight hair . Both are wearing dark hoodies that show the iconic Bite Back logo.

Tell the UK’s biggest food companies to stop flooding supermarket shelves with junk, and start making food for a healthier next generation.

Earlier this year, we uncovered that 7 out of 10 of the biggest food and drink manufacturers make their megabucks from selling mostly unhealthy products.*

Our latest research reveals that the same companies that are filling our supermarket shelves with unhealthy products are also having a negative impact on planetary health.

They talk about responsibility, sustainability and purpose. But their business models are based on selling us unhealthy products, often with packaging that targets children or uses misleading health and climate claims.

If you want to see an end to these sinister tactics, then sign our open letter today.

Sign Our Open Letter to the Top 10

Click To Read The Full Letter

To the Heads of 10 global (hear super powerful) food companies:

It should be easy to grow up healthy in the UK, but as teens we can tell you — it’s not.

We can’t think of a single moment of our lives that your brands haven't crept into. They fill our social media feeds, exploit the popularity of the influencers and athletes we look up to and pour off the shelves of supermarkets and newsagents.

Bite Back’s report released earlier this year confirms just that: 7 out of 10 of you make most of your megabucks from selling unhealthy products.

It's no surprise then that nearly 1 in 3 of us risk a future of food related ill health. That’s a third of us who risk having our lives impacted by chronic diseases like type 2 diabetes or heart disease, and we haven’t even touched on how many of the people we love will be affected.

So it could not be more important to us that you understand your role, and the size of the opportunity you hold in your hands.

Your companies are behind some of the nation’s biggest selling brands. You shape what we eat and drink. Your websites talk about responsibility, sustainability and purpose. But how much of what you sell is actually healthy, for people and the planet? How many of your unhealthy products target children or use misleading marketing ploys and deceptive health claims?

This has to change. YOU have the power and money to do the right thing for us and our planet by:

Selling less junk and more healthy food.

Switching it up so marketing that appeals to children only goes on healthy products.

Being more honest with us — stop using misleading health and climate claims.
Set credible targets to improve your impact on people and the planet, and actually meet them.

Change, and we WILL back you because your future is our future too.

Yours sincerely,

The Bite Back Youth Board

*Research conducted by the University of Oxford using 2022 Euromonitor data on packaged food and drink sales. Exclusions apply.

For full details, read our research reports.

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*For full details see the reports below:

1: Are food giants rigging the system against children’s health? — Full Report, At A Glance Report

2: Are food giants using child-appealing tactics responsibly? — Full Report

3: How far can we trust the food giants with planetary health? — Full report, At A Glance Report