Brexit deal may influence health, cause 5,600 deaths a year in UK

Fruit and vegetable consumption could be reduced by up to one portion each per person per week under a hard Brexit, and by half a portion each under a soft Brexit

Britain is highly dependent on imported food. By value, imports make up more than 90% of the fruit and vegetables consumed in the UK and half of the meat. Brexit is expected to increase trade costs and make food imports more expensive, something that could lead to changes in diets and dietary risk factors that influence health.

In fact, Brexit could lead to up to 5,600 diet-related deaths per year by 2027, additional healthcare expenditure of £600m, and increase the GDP losses of Brexit by up to 50%. That’s according to estimates my colleague Florian Freund and I have published in