Demos, a leftwing think-tank has suggested that celebrity chefs are partly to blame for accelerating ‘food poverty’ among the less wealthy.


According to a report in the Financial Times, supermarkets are concentrating on fashionable foods and trendy ingredients recommended by celebrity chefs, “creating a culture that denies the poor access to a nutritious diet”.


In its report “Inconvenience Food,” Demos said that the collapse of the independent food retail sector, dominance of the supermarket chains and the decline in public transport had led to “food deserts,” where nutritious food was hard to find. It claimed that food manufacturers had a commercial incentive to push high-fat, low-nutrition food at the “value” end of the market.


Co-author Tim Lang, professor of food policy at Thames Valley University, is quoted by the Financial Times as saying: “Our changing food culture and widespread affluence have led the large supermarket chains to target a certain kind of upmarket customer, with the effect that people on low incomes have been left out.”

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