Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:

To ask Her Majesty's Government what plans they have to (1) adjust dietary guidelines, and (2) act to (a) halt, or (b) reverse, the decline in micronutrients in British vegetable and fruit supplies, as reported in the International Journal of Food Sciences and Nutrition, published on 15 October 2021.

The Government’s advice in the Eatwell Guide provides advice on how to have a healthier and more sustainable diet. It recommends food that is high in fibre, fruit and vegetables. We want to make it as easy as possible for people to shift towards a greener and more sustainable lifestyle, whilst maintaining people’s freedom of choice, including their diet. We recognise more people are choosing vegan and vegetarian options and we are working to support these sustainable food choices.

We have the ideal climate which together with highly responsive and versatile growers, the use of innovative best practice and new technologies, enables us to grow a huge range of top quality and nutritious fruit and vegetables in this country. We will continue to support our growers to produce more high-quality fruit and vegetables that is both healthy and sustainable and encourage the use of the latest precision breeding technologies which will ensure that our fresh produce is not only nutritious, but beneficial to the environment, more resilient to climate change, and resistant to disease and pests.

Defra’s Genetic Improvement Networks (GINs) on Wheat, Oilseed Rape, Pulses and Vegetable crops aim to improve these important UK crops by identifying genetic traits to improve their productivity, sustainability, resilience and nutritional quality. These long-term programmes - valued at around £1M per year - have already successfully identified genetic traits that have improved resilience to climate change and common pests and diseases, and we are working with breeders to incorporate these traits into elite UK crop varieties. Ongoing work is also developing traits to improve the nutritional quality of our crops, such as improved pulse protein quality and nutritionally fortified rapeseed oil.