‘Why Should The Devil Have All The Good Tunes?’ A Commentary on Food Regulation, Capture and Legitimacy

Abstract

This article is a commentary on how food corporations expand their legitimacy by tactics which are rooted in undermining public health and nutrition policies. The move from public sector policy making to models which involve the food industry are set out along with some of the background rationale for such moves. This article picks up four developments driven and influenced by the private food sector and expands on them, these are: 1) the selective choice and reframing of evidence for food policy change; 2) the poor narrative framing by public health of the ‘story’; 3) the demands emerging from government and research councils for private sector involvement and 4) the lack of clear ethical principles on engagement with the food industry. Discussion of these four aspects is accompanied by some suggestions for future research into policy making.