Diet-related illness is costing the UK £286billion every year and it is all preventable, according to an expert.

Analysis commissioned by the Food, Farming and Countryside Commission (FFCC) has found that the costs of Britain’s unhealthy food system is equivalent to the total annual UK healthcare spend.

The report by Professor Tim Jackson said cutting out food-related chronic diseases could save the UK billions and make the economy more productive and people happier.

The report analysed direct costs – the costs paid for from the public purse – including healthcare costs, social care costs and welfare, and indirect costs – as well as costs that don’t show up in government accounts – which are productivity losses and human costs.

The report calculated the cost by combining healthcare (£67.5bn), social care (£14.3bn), welfare (£10.1bn), productivity (£116.4bn) and the human cost (£60bn) of chronic disease.

The report urges the goverment and policy makers to adopt three key principles:

• More prevention - by redirecting money away from "perverse subsidies" and damage limitation, instead looking at preventive healthcare and encourage more production of sustainable, nutritious food.
• Making it the right of every citizen – irrespective of class, income, gender, geography, race or age – to have sufficient, affordable, healthy food;
• Regulation to curtails the power of Big Food, promotes dietary health and halt the rise of chronic disease.

Dan Crossley, executive director at the Food Ethics Council told The Grocer that the cost of the poor British diet was at least £10 per person, every day.

He said: "Let’s think carefully about how we communicate numbers, getting away from thinking of £268bn as 85,000 Olympic-sized swimming pools’ worth of £1 coins, or something similarly hard to understand.

"£268bn is the equivalent of £10.60 per person per day. Imagine every person in the UK throwing a £10 note in the bin at the end of every day. Now I’m starting to get a grasp of how outrageously large this number is.

"However you make sense of that large number, please remember it. Then let’s work together to radically reduce it. Collectively we can push for preventative healthcare, a right to good food and a regulatory environment that’s fit for purpose. All in a good food strategy, right?"