Business Matters

Timo Boldt, founder and chief executive of Gousto, believes Britain’s food system is broken.He points to the growing economic burden of diet-related disease with Government figures suggesting obesity alone costs the NHS more than £11 billion a year, while broader estimates put the total economic cost of overweight and obesity at more than £100 billion annually once lost productivity and reduced quality of life are included.Boldt argues the problem begins with what Britons eat. Research suggests more than half of the calories consumed in the UK come from ultra-processed foods, rising to around two-thirds among children and adolescents. He says these products are often engineered for what the industry calls the “bliss point” — the combination of salt, sugar and fat that keeps people coming back for more — and that the result is rising levels of obesity and diet-related illness.He defends Gousto’s typical price point of about £3.20 per meal per person, arguing that it compares favourably with supermarket shoppin