When we push our trolleys around the supermarket we tend to think more about how much our weekly shop is costing us rather than how much it is costing the Earth.

But the choices we make about what we put on our dining tables is having a very real influence on some of the most pressing problems facing our planet, including the global obesity epidemic, climate change and the growing resistance of bacteria to antibiotics.

The drugs used in agriculture (in everything from crop spraying to animal care), the amounts of meat we consume, and the impact of transporting food stuffs around the planet: all have a direct impact on the health of our world and ourselves.

Now a campaign in the United Kingdom by an alliance of more than 50 civil society groups is aiming to raise awareness about the unintended consequences of consumers’ food-buying choices – and inform shoppers about what they can do to help make their food healthier and more sustainable.