A new article in Nature Food argues that boosting corporate accountability is vital to transforming today’s profit-driven, corporatised food systems into models that prioritise human and planetary health.
The piece, co-authored by RE-FRESH: Next Generation Chief Investigator Professor Gary Sacks*, in conjunction with colleagues at the University of Auckland, underscores how global food systems — dominated by relatively few powerful corporations — promote unhealthy diets, environmental harm, and social inequity.
The authors highlight how food company strategies are typically focused on short-term profit growth, with limited priority given to health and the environment. These corporations often resist public health regulation and shape scientific discourse in their favour. At the same time, civil society and public health advocates currently lack the power and data to hold these corporations accountable for their impact on society.
To address this imbalance, the authors advocate for mandatory corporate reporting on standardised, meaningful metrics covering nutrition, health and environmental sustainability. Current voluntary corporate reporting frameworks are limited in scope with low uptake, , which has led to limited transparency. A stronger system, they argue, would allow governments, investors, and civil society to better monitor and influence corporate behaviour.
Beyond disclosure, the article calls for regulatory reform — such as tightening competition laws and regulating lobbying — to limit corporate influence and foster more equitable, sustainable food economies.
“Improved accountability is not just about transparency — it’s about redistributing power,” the authors write, calling for governments to mandate reporting and enable real consequences for corporate underperformance. Such recalibration, they argue, could help curb diet-related diseases and mitigate environmental damage linked to industrialised food production.
*Prof Sacks is also the Co-Director of the Global Centre for Preventive Health and Nutrition (GLOBE) within the Institute of Health Transformation, Deakin University.
