YOU and my other reader can hardly have failed to notice that there is a food and drink festival taking place in York at the moment.

The event is the latest in the line of such festivals that take place annually. It serves to remind us of the astonishing variety of food and drink available within the city. York is a major tourist attraction. The many nationalities who travel through York each year have influenced the variety of food we have. The important thing is the quality.

Over the past few years a great deal of attention has been devoted to improving the quality of the food we eat. There has always been good British food. The best food available here has been as good as the best available anywhere. The efforts of recent times has been to make better quality more widely available.

It is now possible to buy meats from the UK throughout the year and vegetables for much of the year at a reasonable price. I have remarked before on the small proportion of the average wage which UK residents spend on food. Almost everyone can afford to eat fresh food.

The nation's eating habits are increasingly under scrutiny. More and more jobs are essentially sedentary. Many of us spend leisure time sitting in front of television screens or computer monitors.

The lack of exercise is affecting the health of many. The longest walk many of us take is to the car park. The habit of walking children to school is mostly a thing of the past. Mothers and fathers drop off the children on the way to work. Anyway if children were not driven to school, what would be the point of the shiny 4x4 vehicle?

Food producers are being urged to reduce the amount of salt and sugar included in prepared foods. There is not much point in not adding them to meals if they are already included during the preparation process.

We have become used to these ingredients, and recipes will need to change as inclusion rates are reduced or items removed altogether. It will take time and progress is slow. In due course more reminders will be necessary.

Events such as the York Festival Of Food And Drink point out that there is more than one way to flavour food. It does not have to be salt and the all-too frequently encountered monosodium glutamate. Indeed the taste of fresh food is so much nicer than pre-prepared food that there may be no need for additional flavouring.

There does seem to be a genuine movement towards encouraging local production of the food we eat. It is relatively easy to achieve, if everyone is determined, in items such as vegetables and meats.

What about the flour in our bread? There is local wheat of the right quality. Over the years the mills producing the flour and the bread makers using the flour to produce bread have become fewer and larger. As usual this has the effect of lessening choice and making local control more difficult.

There is room in most people's diet for some improvement, and such improvements cost a tiny amount, but deliver potentially huge benefits.

The lessons to be learned from the food and drink festival are clear when demonstrated to us by the participants the organisers have assembled. The difficult part is learning those lessons and putting them into practice.

In the meantime, the festival is there. Go along, listen to the speakers, watch the demonstrations and most of all, enjoy the food and drink.

Updated: 11:58 Tuesday, September 16, 2003