How ultra-processed food became a corporate-engineered health crisis - Richard Murphy

25th November 2025

Ultra-processed foods now make up at least half of all food sold in UK supermarkets. The Lancet has described them as a "corporate-engineered public health crisis." That is exactly what they are - industrial products designed for profit, not nutrition. They override appetite control, promote over-consumption, and push out real food alternatives.

These foods are cheap because wages are low, access to fresh food is unequal, and corporate concentration has eliminated choice.

The result is a society burdened with obesity, diabetes, heart disease and cancers — and an NHS stretched to breaking point. None of this is accidental.

In this video, I explain how ultra-processed food became unavoidable, why it is a systemic economic issue rather than a personal failure, and what the government can do now: from food labelling and advertising bans to taxing ultra-processed products and subsidising real food. We can change this — but only if we confront corporate power.

What is the most important action the government should take on ultra-processed foods?

00:00 - The Lancet's warning: a corporate-engineered health crisis
00:40 – Ultra-processed foods: not personal failure
01:30 – Profit-driven food system
02:15 – How UPFs are industrial creations
03:30 – Ingredients you’d never find in your kitchen
04:20 – Engineered for shelf life, not nutrition
05:00 – How UPFs override appetite and promote overeating
06:00 – The corporations behind the crisis
07:15 – Designed hunger and perpetual snacking
08:00 – Obesity, diabetes, and disease as engineered outcomes
09:00 – NHS pressures and the real cost
09:50 – UPFs as drivers of inequality
11:00 – Time poverty, low pay, and food access
12:00 – Environmental destruction baked into UPFs
13:00 – What governments should do: regulation, tax, and reform
13:45 – Positive VAT on UPFs, negative VAT on real food
14:15 – Final call: political courage and public health

TRANSCRIPT
A transcript for this video is available at: https://www.taxresearch.org.uk