Food Data Transparency Partnership

Food Data Transparency Partnership
Agency overview
Formed	June 2022
Jurisdiction	United Kingdom
Parent department	Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs; Department of Health and Social Care; Food Standards Agency
Website	www.gov.uk/government/groups/food-data-transparency-partnership

The Food Data Transparency Partnership (FDTP) is a United Kingdom multi-stakeholder initiative led by government departments working with industry, academia and civil society to improve the availability, quality and comparability of food system data in order to support the production and sale of more environmentally sustainable and healthier food and drink.^[1]

History

The FDTP was announced in the UK Government Food Strategy in June 2022.^[2] According to the Food Standards Agency (FSA), work on the partnership began in summer 2022 as a long-term collaboration across the Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC), Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) and the FSA with external stakeholders.^[3]

Structure

The programme operates through several groups with published terms of reference and membership summaries:

Eco Working Group (EWG) - develops proposals for measuring and communicating environmental metrics (initial focus on greenhouse gas emissions). Co-chaired by Judith Batchelar and Karen Lepper.^[4]^[5]
Health Working Group (HWG) - considers metrics for voluntary company-level reporting on the healthiness of sales by large food and drink businesses. Co-chaired by Susan Barratt and Natasha Burgon.^[6]^[7]
Data Working Group (DWG) - advises on technical feasibility and standards; co-chaired by Anne Godfrey (GS1 UK) and Julie Pierce (FSA).^[8]
Design Partnership Group (DPG) - industry forum on operational feasibility, comprising more than 50 organisations; co-chaired by Defra’s Director General for Food, Biosecurity & Trade and Chris Tyas (GS1 UK).^[9]^[10]

Activities and outputs

In April–May 2024 Defra published an FDTP policy paper outlining a roadmap for agri-food environmental data, including proposals on scope-3 greenhouse-gas reporting at company level, product-level impact quantification, eco-labelling, and development of data infrastructure and governance.^[1] A series of meeting summaries for the Eco Working Group from 2023 to 2025 document ongoing work and decisions-in-principle.^[11]^[12]^[13]

In July 2025 Defra published the LED4Food: Product-level GHG footprinting methodology, described as a key milestone for the partnership and intended to support consistent product-level accounting and scope-3 reporting.^[14]

The FDTP environmental workstream aligns with WRAP’s Scope 3 GHG Measurement and Reporting Protocols for Food and Drink, which provide sector guidance and were updated in 2024.^[15]^[16]

Health metrics work

The UK Government’s January 2025 response to the House of Lords Food, Diet and Obesity Committee sets out the FDTP health workstream’s aim for large food and drink businesses (over 250 employees) to report on the healthiness of their sales, led by DHSC and supported by the FSA.^[17] HWG meeting summaries from 2024 describe testing and modelling of potential health metrics and practical issues around data availability and reporting.^[18]^[7]

Reception and commentary

Trade and sector publications have reported on the partnership’s roadmap and priorities. Food Manufacture summarised the 2024 paper and sector reaction,^[19] while the Agriculture and Horticulture Development Board (AHDB) described the FDTP environmental roadmap and year-ahead priorities for agri-food data.^[20] Civil-society commentary has linked the FDTP to broader debates on moving towards mandatory reporting by large food businesses.^[21]

References

^ ^a ^b "FDTP: towards consistent, accurate and accessible environmental impact quantification for the agri-food industry". GOV.UK. London: Department for Environment, Food & Rural Affairs. 10 May 2024. Retrieved 25 August 2025.
^ "Government food strategy". GOV.UK. London: Department for Environment, Food & Rural Affairs. 13 June 2022. Retrieved 25 August 2025.
^ "FSA Strategy: Annual update on progress indicators (Appendix A – Case study 1: Food Data Transparency Partnership)". Food.gov.uk. London: Food Standards Agency. 5 July 2024. Retrieved 25 August 2025.
^ "Eco Working Group – Terms of Reference" (PDF). GOV.UK. London: Department for Environment, Food & Rural Affairs. May 2025. Retrieved 25 August 2025.
^ "Eco Working Group minutes" (PDF). GOV.UK. London: Department for Environment, Food & Rural Affairs. 2 April 2025. Retrieved 25 August 2025.
^ "Health Working Group – Terms of Reference" (PDF). GOV.UK. London: Department of Health and Social Care. September 2023. Retrieved 25 August 2025.
^ ^a ^b "Health Working Group – Meeting 5 summary" (PDF). GOV.UK. London: Department of Health and Social Care. 24 April 2024. Retrieved 25 August 2025.
^ "Data Working Group – List of members" (PDF). GOV.UK. London: Food Standards Agency. September 2023. Retrieved 25 August 2025.
^ "Design Partnership Group – Terms of Reference" (PDF). GOV.UK. London: Department for Environment, Food & Rural Affairs. September 2023. Retrieved 25 August 2025.
^ "Design Partnership Group – List of member organisations" (PDF). GOV.UK. London: Department for Environment, Food & Rural Affairs. September 2023. Retrieved 25 August 2025.
^ "Eco Working Group – Meeting 12 summary" (PDF). GOV.UK. London: Department for Environment, Food & Rural Affairs. 10 September 2024. Retrieved 25 August 2025.
^ "Eco Working Group – Meeting 14 summary" (PDF). GOV.UK. London: Department for Environment, Food & Rural Affairs. 24 February 2025. Retrieved 25 August 2025.
^ "Eco Working Group – Meeting 17 summary" (PDF). GOV.UK. London: Department for Environment, Food & Rural Affairs. 17 June 2025. Retrieved 25 August 2025.
^ "LED4Food: Product-level GHG footprinting methodology". GOV.UK. London: Department for Environment, Food & Rural Affairs. 25 July 2025. Retrieved 25 August 2025.
^ "Scope 3 GHG Measurement and Reporting Protocols for Food and Drink". WRAP. Banbury. 17 June 2024. Retrieved 25 August 2025.
^ "WRAP Scope 3 Protocols for UK Food & Drink Businesses – full draft (v2)" (PDF). WRAP. Banbury. January 2024. Retrieved 25 August 2025.
^ "Government response to the House of Lords Food, Diet and Obesity Committee's report: Recipe for health: a plan to fix our broken food system". GOV.UK. London: Department of Health and Social Care. 30 January 2025. Retrieved 25 August 2025.
^ "FDTP Health Working Group – Meeting 4 summary" (PDF). GOV.UK. London: Department of Health and Social Care. 29 February 2024. Retrieved 25 August 2025.
^ Grylls, Bethan (23 April 2024). "The Food Data Transparency Partnership roadmap explained". Food Manufacture. William Reed Ltd. Retrieved 25 August 2025.
^ AHDB (15 May 2024). "Roadmap for UK agri-food environmental data released". AHDB News. AHDB. Retrieved 25 August 2025.
^ The Food Foundation (October 2024). "The State of the Nation's Food Industry 2024" (PDF). Report (PDF). The Food Foundation. Retrieved 25 August 2025.