The First National Good Food Nation Plan

Footnotes

1 We define food system in line with the UN definition as: “all the elements (environment, people, inputs, processes, infrastructures, institutions, etc.) and activities that relate to the production, processing, distribution, preparation and consumption of food, and the outputs of these activities, including socio-economic and environmental outcomes” (UNEP (2016) Food Systems and Natural Resources. A Report of the Working Group on Food Systems of the International Resource Panel).

2 Note that “food system” is distinct from the “food environment”. The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations states that: “Food environments comprise the foods available to people in their surroundings as they go about their everyday lives and the nutritional quality, safety, price, convenience, labelling and promotion of these foods. Food environments play an important role in shaping diets because they provide the choices people have when they make decisions about what to eat. A healthy food environment is one that creates the conditions that enable and encourage people to access and choose healthy diets.”

3 “Diet-related conditions”, also known as non-communicable diseases, refers to illnesses that result from diets that have an imbalance of particular nutrients or food groups. Common diet-related conditions include: obesity, type 2 diabetes, cardiovascular diseases, hypertension, certain types of cancer and nutrient deficiencies.

4 Food Matters: Wales

5 Northern Ireland Food Strategy

6 UK Government Food Strategy

7 “Diet-related conditions”, also known as non-communicable diseases, refers to illnesses that result from diets that have an imbalance of particular nutrients or food groups. Common diet-related conditions include: obesity, type 2 diabetes, cardiovascular diseases, hypertension, certain types of cancer and nutrient deficiencies.

8 Tackling Child Poverty Delivery Plan (2018) - the six priority family types identified as being most at risk of poverty.

9 Office for National Statistics, Earnings and hours worked, by industry and occupation: ASHE (2024)

10 Supporting documents - Ending the need for food banks - draft plan: consultation analysis - gov.scot (2022)

11 Please refer to Annex A for full detail of the legislative requirements applying to this document.

12 The Scottish Government has committed to bringing forward legislation in Session 7 (2026-31) of the Scottish Parliament – subject to the outcome of the 2026 Scottish Parliament election – to incorporate the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights into Scots law, within the limits of devolved competence.

13 The UNCRC (Incorporation) (Scotland) Act 2024 fully commenced in July 2024, which means that the UNCRC has been directly incorporated into Scots law, within the limits of devolved competence.

14 The Scottish Government has committed to bringing forward legislation in Session 7 (2026-31) of the Scottish Parliament – subject to the outcome of the 2026 Scottish Parliament election – to incorporate the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women into Scots law, within the limits of devolved competence.

15 Based on UN Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights General Comment 12 on the right to adequate food - to note that General Comments are intended to provide further guidance on how the treaties are to be interpreted and provide assistance to States parties to the Conventions in fulfilling their reporting obligations. They are not legally binding and provide guidance on how the articles of the treaties should be implemented.

16 The NPF sets out 11 National Outcomes for Scotland: these Outcomes describe the kind of Scotland the framework aims to create.

17 The SDGs are a set of “global goals” and targets that are part of an internationally agreed call to action to end poverty, protect the planet, and ensure that all people enjoy peace and prosperity by 2030.

18 Only the international instruments listed at Section 5(2) of the Good Food Nation (Scotland) Act 2022 are included in this table.

19 Systems thinking is a framework for seeing the interconnections in a system and a discipline for seeing and understanding the whole system; the ‘structures’ that underlie complex situations.

20 'have regard' is a legal term meaning to take the relevant document into account and, if the Scottish Ministers decide to depart from it, they must have and give clear reasons for doing so.

21 Relevant functions and descriptions of functions will be specified in secondary legislation.

22 “Diet-related conditions”, also known as non-communicable diseases, refers to illnesses that result from diets that have an imbalance of particular nutrients or food groups. Common diet-related conditions include: obesity, type 2 diabetes, cardiovascular diseases, hypertension, certain types of cancer, and nutrient deficiencies.

23 The requirement for relevant authorities to publish good food nation plans is set out in section 10 of the Act. Relevant authorities must comply with this duty before the end of the period of 12 months beginning with the day on which section 10 comes into force. Section 10 is currently not in force.

24 This new, statutory, Scottish Food Commission is not to be confused with the previous, non-statutory commission of the same name which completed its work in 2018.

25 The Scottish Food Commission was formally established 30 June 2025.

26 Scotland has a robust legislative and regulatory framework in place which provides the right balance between developing the fish farming sector and protecting the environment on which the sector depends.

27 Figures for 2022, 2023 and 2024 are preliminary

28 Partial year data cover the first two quarters of 2025 has been published. This showed in the year ending Q2 2025 data, food and drink exports were worth £7.18 billion.

29 Public procurement policy and legislation requires public bodies to consider and act on opportunities for small or medium enterprises (SMEs), the third sector, and supported businesses to access contracting opportunities. Domestic legislation and international trade obligations prohibit activities that would discriminate between suppliers on grounds of nationality or locality, or which would result in unequal treatment of suppliers.

30 Only the international instruments listed at Section 5(2) of the Good Food Nation (Scotland) Act 2022 are included in this table.