Major UK food and drink manufacturers don’t need a complete product overhaul to meaningfully improve nutritional value and environmental footprint – for some, reworking just a tenth of their range could deliver substantial improvements, according to new research published in Nature Food.

Oxford researchers scored thousands of products sold by 44 major UK manufacturers, together representing around half the country’s food retail market, on nutrition and environmental impact per 100g. The results exposed substantial inconsistencies even within the same category: two comparative ready meals could land at opposite ends of the spectrum depending on which manufacturer made them.

To measure the potential for change, the team modelled swapping each manufacturer’s worst-scoring products for ones closer to the category average. For many manufacturers, more than half of the total possible improvement came from adjusting 10% or less of their product range.

“Manufacturers can get a head start on this necessary transition by making small changes to their product portfolios today,” said co-author Dr Michael Clark, associate professor of sustainable food solutions at the Smith School of Enterprise and the Environment.

Two major British supermarkets – whose own-label ranges made up 28.9% of the sales analysed – had some of the greatest room for improvement, while manufacturers with narrower ranges, such as snack and energy drink makers, had less scope to improve.