British Nutrition Foundation

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The British Nutrition Foundation is the key food industry front group in the UK. The BNF claims to promote 'the nutritional wellbeing of society through the impartial interpretation and effective dissemination of scientifically based nutritional knowledge and advice'.[1]

"The Foundation promotes the nutritional wellbeing of society through the impartial interpretation and effective dissemination of scientifically based nutritional knowledge and advice. It works in partnership with academic and research institutes, the food industry, educators and government. The Foundation influences all in the food chain, government, the professions and the media. The Foundation is a charitable organisation which raises funds from the food industry, government and a variety of other sources."[2]

The BNF still seems curiously reluctant to be upfront about its corporate funding. Its website contains a 'links' page to 'member companies', but no indication that they fund it or how much they pay.

Founded in 1967 it has a long record of campaigning to defend the interests of the food industry. Its 2000-01 annual report lists of the largest food companies operating in the UK including some of the biggest transnational corporations such as Ajinomoto (makers of Nutrasweet), British Sugar, Cadbury's Coca Cola, Du Pont, Sainsbury's, Kellogg's, McDonald's, Nestle, Procter and Gamble, Roche, Tate and Lyle, Trebor Bassett, Unilever and Weetabix. The BNF declines to publish its membership fees but declares income of £541,109 in the year 2000-2001 from 'Covenants, donations and memberships'. On average this would translate as around £16,000 for each member, an insignificant sum for such large companies. The BNF was exposed by a World in Action documentary in 1985 when its Director General from 1982-4, Dr Derek Shrimpton appeared revealing that it was unable to pursue an independent line on nutrition policy: 'In the period I was there the BNF was solely taken up with defensive actions for the industry', he said. He revealed that it had conducted a long struggle to undermine successive government committees which were trying to recommend reductions in the consumption of sugars, salt and fats. The BNF role was to try and 'kill' the NACNE Committee:

If it couldn't be killed it was best to be emasculated. And in all events the BNF must come out of this very white. At no time must the BNF's hand be seen in this… the tactic was to delay it and delay it again, so that everybody got fed up and at no point would it see the light of day. If that failed then it was to be published as low key as possible and no official support.[3]

The BNF campaigning was so effective that the government report was suppressed and never implemented. The only defeat for the BNF was that the suppression was picked up in the media and caused a major political row - but no action. The follow up committee was jointly convened with the BNF and its report too was suppressed.[4] This was a factor in the later abolition of the Health Education Council by the Thatcher government and its replacement with a quango less threatening to industry interests. Mind you., even this organisations became too threatening to the government over the issues of HIV and AiDs and it was closed and absorbed into the NHS.[5]

The appearance of independence convinces many. BNF officials and associated scientists sit on government committees and according to the BNF annual report 2001 the organisation 'is increasingly asked to check copy by magazines' the kind of public credibility which corporations crave.[6]

Its industrial sponsors include:


BNF Member Companies

From the BNF website

British Nutrition Foundation

(From tfx website [7])

The BNF is an industry-supported charity whose corporate members read like a food industry Who's Who, including such companies as MacDonalds, Northern Foods, Kraft, Kelloggs, RHM, Coca-Cola, Unilever, Nestlé, Sainsbury, Asda, Procter & Gamble, Dairy Crest ... you get the picture. Collectively they, and the Government (why?) support the BNF to the tune of over £1 million per year.

While recognising that the BNF does provide some good and worthwhile information on food and diet, we are mystified at the general lack of information on trans fats and their hazards.

However this should be seen in the context of this statement by Chairman Malcolm Peaker in the 2004 Annual Report, that the BNF benefits its corporate members through the impartial provision by BNF of accurate and balanced evidence at times of media misinformation and politically-motivated scaremongering. Even a single food-and-health scare can significantly reduce the value of a company and undermine consumer confidence in a product. The only defence in such circumstances is the delivery of evidence by a trusted and respected organisation, and BNF has, on many occasions, defused some potentially very damaging situations by providing that evidence.

The more cynically minded might think that this is an admission of the BNF's true purpose: to act as a trusted, authoritative voice that dismisses food scares, maintains consumer confidence, and maintains the share price of food companies.

BNF Council

From [8]


Chairman of Council

Scientific Governors

  • Professor S.A. Bingham, BSc MA PhD FMedSci Deputy Director, MRC Dunn Nutrition Unit, Cambridge
  • Professor J. Blundell, BSc PhD CPsychol FBPsS Department of Psychology, University of Leeds
  • Professor A. de Looy, BSc PhD SRD Professor of Dietetics, Plymouth University
  • Professor K. Fox, PhD Department of Exercise and Health Sciences, University of Bristol
  • Professor C.J.K. Henry BSc MSc PhD, Principal Lecturer Oxford Brookes University School of Biology
  • Professor A.A. Jackson, MA MD FRCP Professor of Human Nutrition, School of Biological Sciences, University of Southampton
  • Professor M. B. E. Livingstone, BEd MSc DPhil RNutr Professor of Nutrition, School of Biomedical Sciences, University of Ulster
  • Professor M.S. Losowsky, MD FRCP Emeritus Professor of Medicine, St. James's University Hospital, Leeds
  • Professor A.D.B. Malcolm, MA DPhil CBiol FIBiol FIFST Chief Executive, Institute of Biology
  • Professor J.C. Mathers, BSc PhD Professor of Human Nutrition and Director of the Human Nutrition Research Centre, University of Newcastle upon Tyne
  • Professor T.A.B. Sanders, BSc PhD DSc Professor of Nutrition and Dietetics, King's College London University
  • Professor C.M. Williams, BSc PhD Head of Hugh Sinclair Unit of Human Nutrition, University of Reading

Scientific Governors appointed by the Royal Society of London

Industrial Governors

General Governors

Ex-Officio Governors

Honorary President of Council:

  • Professor Dame Barbara Clayton, DBE MD PhD HonDSc FRCP Honorary Research Professor in Metabolism, University of Southampton, Honorary President, The British Nutrition Foundation

Honorary Vice-Presidents of Council:=

  • Professor A. Shenkin, BSc PhD FRCP FRCPath Professor of Clinical Chemistry, University of Liverpool

Honorary Treasurer:

  • Members of the Board of Trustees

BNF Staff

From [9]

Resources

John Yudkin, 'Attack is the best defence', Chapter 21 in Pure, White and Deadly, Penguin, 1988.

External links

Kath Dalmeny, 'Sugar Spin', The Ecologist, Date Published: 31 October 2003

Notes

  1. ^http://www.nutrition.org.uk/bnf/corporate.htm
  2. ^http://www.nutrition.org.uk/home.asp?siteId=43&sectionId=305&which=7
  3. ^cited in Cannon 1987:356
  4. ^Cannon 1987: 354-362
  5. ^ See Miller et al 1998
  6. ^ BNF 2001, Annual Report, p. 8
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