Department for Health and Social Care has issued new guidelines on baby food and labelling to ensure children are eating more healthily in early years
The new guidelines will help to put an end to the burden being on parents to sift through different products to choose the healthier ones:
Healthier food for children thanks to new guidelines for manufacturers to reduce sugar and salt in commercial baby foods
Labelling to be made clearer to help parents shop easier and make informed choices about what they feed their children
Reforms part of Plan for Change to tackle concerning levels of sugar found in snack foods for young children
Baby food manufacturers will be given 18 months to reduce sugar and salt levels in baby foods aimed at children up to 36 months old.
The guidelines will also tackle misleading labelling that often conflicts with official feeding advice.
For example, some products labelled as snacks for babies from seven months onwards directly contradict government recommendations that children aged 6-12 months do not need snacks between meals, only milk.
Through the Plan for Change, the government aims to give every child the best start in life, which includes an extra £57 million for Start for Life services, helping expectant and new mothers with their infants, as well as expanded school-based nurseries and free breakfast clubs.
From January 2026, adverts for less healthy products will be banned from being shown on TV before 9pm or at any time online, reducing children’s excessive exposure to many foods high in fat, sugar or salt. The government has also granted more powers to local authorities to ban fast food shops from setting up outside of schools.
First Milk strengthens returns to members with 20% surge in turnover
First Milk has delivered a 20% surge in turnover to £570 million, alongside a rise in profits, as it integrates BV Dairy and accelerates its regenerative farming agenda.
The dairy co-operative has posted a robust set of results for the year ending 31 March 2025, highlighting both financial strength and progress on its regenerative farming commitments.
The Annual Financial and Impact Report, published today (28 August), revealed turnover of £570 million, up 20% on the previous year’s £476 million.
Growth was driven by the full-year effect of its February 2024 acquisition of BV Dairy, coupled with increased sales of milk, whey protein and chilled speciality products.
Operating profit climbed to £20.5 million, compared with £16.8 million last year, while total group capital and reserves rose to £62.5 million from £58.5 million in 2024.
Despite significant investment, First Milk said it had kept net debt “broadly stable” at £66 million, just above last year’s £64.9 million, while also paying off outstanding loan notes linked to the BV Dairy deal.
Strategic investment of £4.7 million included £3.9 million in capital projects at its cheese creameries in the Lake District and Pembrokeshire.
The integration of BV Dairy is progressing at pace, with First Milk introducing a new structure comprising three business units: BV Dairy, Cheese, and Milk.
This reorganisation, the co-operative said, was designed to sharpen customer responsiveness and maximise opportunities generated through farmer-led Regenerative Farm Plans.
First Milk reported further momentum in its sustainability agenda. Land enrolled in its regenerative programme rose by 6% to 89,977 hectares, while members achieved a 3.2% cut in carbon intensity to 1.13 kgCO2e per kg of fat and protein corrected milk.
Soil carbon sequestration more than doubled to 203,000 tonnes CO2e, up from 114,000 tonnes last year.
However, the co-operative noted that total greenhouse gas emissions across Scope 1, 2 and 3 increased by 14% year-on-year, largely due to the full-year footprint of BV Dairy and growth in production of energy-intensive whey products.
In mitigation, First Milk confirmed it now sources 100% of its purchased electricity from renewables and sends no waste to landfill from its three manufacturing sites.
Commenting on the results, Shelagh Hancock, chief executive of First Milk, said the co-operative had achieved strong progress despite a challenging backdrop.
“In a year of subdued economic growth in the UK and across export markets, our solid business performance enabled us to achieve our objective of delivering above market total returns to our members.
\"Importantly we achieved this whilst integrating BV Dairy into the First Milk family and paying down the outstanding loan notes related to the acquisition.”
She added that the organisational restructure is already paying dividends, helping customers meet both commercial and sustainability priorities.
“Add to this the benefits that our restructure is bringing to our customers, to better support them on their commercial and ESG agendas, it’s a year when we made important progress on adding value to our customers and members and building our resilience.”
Ms Hancock highlighted the efforts of members in advancing regenerative practices, noting that these measures are strengthening farm businesses by enhancing soil health, supporting biodiversity, and safeguarding water resources, while also boosting carbon sequestration.
“Ultimately our vision is to enrich life every day to secure the future for our members, colleagues, customers and communities.
\"We will do this by ensuring First Milk is a distinctive, regenerative farmer owned co-operative, efficiently producing great tasting, quality dairy products for our customers and consumers.”
Gordon Brown pressures Labour to scrap two-child benefit cap: ‘Child poverty is cancer in society'
In an exclusive interview with ITV News, Brown said: \"You cannot have a situation where under a Labour government, child poverty numbers just go up and up, and up.\"
Brown has urged Chancellor Rachel Reeves to end the widely criticised policy, which currently affects an estimated 1.5 million children across the UK.
The two-child cap, introduced by the Conservatives in 2017, prevents most families from claiming universal credit or child tax credit for a third or subsequent child born after April of that year. Upon entering office last year, Labour ministers said lifting the cap was \"unaffordable\" given current fiscal constraints.
The policy remains a contentious issue within Labour, as experts and charities warn that it is pushing 100 children into poverty every day.
Brown, who served as Chancellor under Tony Blair for a decade and later as Prime Minister, believes scrapping the cap could lift 500,000 children out of poverty.
\"This can be done without breaching fiscal rules or breaking manifesto promises,\" he said. He suggested the estimated £3 billion cost could be met through new revenue streams, including a levy on online gambling, a tax on commercial banks, and changes to gift aid rules for higher-rate taxpayers.
During his time in government, Brown used the tax and benefits system to reduce child poverty, expanding support for low-income families and increasing child benefit payments. Since stepping down in 2010, he has remained deeply involved in anti-poverty efforts.
Speaking from a Multi Bank hub in Fife, Scotland—one of six he helped establish—Brown described how the centres redistribute surplus goods from retailers like Amazon to families in need, preventing waste while supporting communities.
Brown said the progress Labour made on child poverty up to 2010 has been \"reversed\", calling the current situation \"a personal heartbreak for millions and a scandal still staining our national conscience.\"
He warned: \"If we don’t act, over five million children will be living in poverty by the 2030s.\"
In 2010, there were just 35 food banks in the UK. Today, there are over 2,600.
Brown cautioned that without intervention, cities like Manchester and Birmingham could soon see \"every second child condemned to poverty,\" with child poverty rates rising by 50% over the next decade.
Labour has launched a child poverty taskforce, co-chaired by Work and Pensions Secretary Liz Kendall and Education Secretary Bridget Phillipson, with the goal of reducing child poverty during this Parliament. However, the publication of its proposals has been delayed until the autumn—a move some opposition MPs have called \"disgraceful\".
The taskforce is expected to recommend measures such as expanded free school meals, breakfast clubs, family hubs, more affordable childcare, and community-based anti-poverty initiatives.
Dairy farmers say worker shortage is threatening UK food security
Dairy farmers have warned that a long-running shortage of workers, exacerbated by Brexit and the pandemic, has put the UK’s
food security under pressure.
Five in six farmers who have looked for workers said they have received very few or zero applications from qualified people for their job vacancies, according to a survey of dairy producers by Arla, the UK’s largest dairy cooperative and the owner of the Lurpak and Cravendale brands.
The fifth annual poll of Arla’s 1,900 British dairy farmers has highlighted the worsening struggle to find workers with the right skills and experience, with 79% of farmers highlighting this problem in 2021, rising to 84% this year.
Nearly half (48.6%) of those surveyed said it was now harder to retain staff than it was before
Brexit and the pandemic, while only 5% said the situation had improved.
More than one in 10 (13%) respondents said they would leave farming altogether in the next 12 months if there was no improvement in labour shortages, and 6% said they had been forced to cut the amount of milk they produced.
Arla itself has seen a reduction in milk producers over the past few years, although production volumes have remained constant. Its membership has fallen by about 300, from 2,100 three years ago, as farmers have retired or through consolidation of farms, amid a trend for keeping larger herds. Arla members represent almost a third of all UK dairy farmers.
“What we’re seeing is the real impact of these workforce shortages on our farming industry, whether that’s in higher costs or lower milk production,” said Bas Padberg, managing director of Arla Foods UK.
“The effect of this is ultimately going to be seen in the price and availability of products on the supermarket shelves, affecting the millions of people that rely on dairy as a source of nutrition in their diet.”
Arla – which, like other companies, runs its own apprenticeship schemes as well as industrial placements – said the government had acknowledged the ongoing difficulties with recruiting staff, and welcomed the focus on talent and development as part of the upcoming food strategy.
However, Padberg called for “practical steps that the industry, the education sector and government can take together” to attract more people, especially younger workers, to the dairy sector.
Dairy, like much of the rest of agriculture, has an ageing workforce and nearly half (47%) of farmers are aged 55 and over. Younger workers are most likely to enter the industry if it is in the family: two-thirds (66%) of farmers said their farms had been passed down at least four generations, while only 3% of respondents said they were first-generation.