The government is launching a new health campaign under the Change 4 Life banner which will provide recipe leaflets to over 4 million families.
The Asda, Aldi and Co-op supermarket chains have all signed up to the campaign and will offer discounts on some of products that appear in the recipes, including fruit, vegetables and fish.
Celebrity chef Ainsley Harriott has also helped to develop a cookbook which will promote healthy dishes that can be made for under £5 and has filmed some cooking tutorials for the campaign’s website.
Mr Harriott said: “Sometimes the thought of making meals from scratch can seem a bit daunting, but I have always tried to assure people that cooking at home can be really quick, easy and doesn’t need to break the bank.”
A spokesperson for the British Dietetic Association welcomed the scheme as a positive step to help those who wanted to cook, but didn’t know how to. They added that would help them to learn what ingredients buy and how to stick to their food budget.
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The government suggested that healthy eating can be done on a budget and that the new campaign will help people to to get balanced meals on a budget.
However, the move has been criticised as an ‘advertisement for big business’ by the Labour party. The shadow public health minister, Diane Abbot, argued that the government wasn’t taking it’s public health responsibilities seriously. She added that often inner city areas have poor access to fresh food, leaving many on a takeaway diet.
