Soaring food prices in 2007 were the spur that led ministers last year to start crafting the UK’s first food policy since the end of rationing after the second world war.

The policy will not be laid out in full until this autumn, but on Monday the government published some preliminary findings, including research on food security, showing the extent to which the country is self-sufficient. It also put forward some potential policy components, including an acceptance that genetically modified food might be required in the future.