The food we eat has major impacts on our health, on local ecosystems and on our planet as a whole. Our current food consumption habits are both contributing to worsening the climate and environmental crises and fueling a global public health crisis caused by malnutrition and obesity. Radical system-wide changes are urgently needed to correct this. It is crucial to support, as much as possible, the adoption of healthier and more sustainable diets and food cultures, contributing to a long-term solution to these crises. This Scientific Opinion presents a set of recommendations for a mix of policy interventions to overcome the barriers that are preventing consumers from eating in a healthier and more sustainable way, which would complement the current initiatives under the Farm to Fork strategy.

Recommendations:

• COORDINATE THE ADOPTION OF A COHERENT MIX OF COMPLEMENTARY POLICIES THAT INCLUDE INSTRUMENTS ADDRESSING INCENTIVES AND DISINCENTIVES, INFORMATION ON HEALTHY AND SUSTAINABLE FOOD, AND REGULATORY MEASURES.

  • Develop a long-term vision on healthy and sustainable diets that is shared by all supply-chain actors who influence the food environment, and make these actors accountable.

  • Ensure coherence between different interventions that influence the food system and remove conflicting interventions.

  • Ensure high-level policy coordination by developing communication channels, sustained dialogues and a harmonised governance system.

  • Monitor responses to new policies by food processors and retailers in order to anticipate any unintended effects of policy interventions.

• MAKE HEALTHY AND SUSTAINABLE DIETS THE EASY AND AFFORDABLE CHOICE.

  • Identify the optimal fiscal mechanisms to progressively introduce taxes on products whose frequent consumption is unhealthy and unsustainable, with appropriate communication and evaluation measures.

  • Make healthy and sustainable diets more affordable.

  • Adjust subsidy schemes for production systems with low environmental performances, where needed.

  • Address the root causes of poor nutrition with social policies aimed at eradicating poverty and investing in better education for all.

• SECURE THE PROVISION OF ADEQUATE AND TRUSTED INFORMATION ABOUT THE ENVIRONMENTAL AND HEALTH IMPACTS OF DIFFERENT FOODS IN ORDER TO ENCOURAGE HEALTHY AND SUSTAINABLE DECISION-MAKING BY ALL ACTORS IN THE FOOD SYSTEM.

  • Generalise the inclusion of sustainability criteria in national dietary guidelines.

  • Define and communicate EU-wide and national-scale time-bound goals for healthy and sustainable consumption.

  • Develop both information campaigns to raise consumer awareness about health and the sustainability impact of diets and education programmes to improve food literacy.

  • Encourage consumers to establish more direct connections with primary food producers in order to increase food literacy.

  • Make better use of the potential of the digital food environment to inform consumers about healthy and sustainable diets and to reduce food waste.

  • Restrict advertising for food products and drinks whose frequent consumption is unhealthy and unsustainable.

  • Engage with all food-system actors in a transparent manner and give an equal voice to all stakeholders in order to obtain healthy and sustainable diets and to overcome expected opposition from some food industry actors to some policy measures.

• MANDATE NEW INTERVENTIONS TO PROMOTE THE AVAILABILITY AND ACCESSIBILITY OF PRODUCTS FOR HEALTHY AND SUSTAINABLE DIETS.

  • Encourage Member States to regulate the placement in retail outlets of products whose frequent consumption is unhealthy and unsustainable.

  • Require food product reformulation in order to increase availability of healthy and sustainable food.

  • Restrict EU imports of food commodities from places where food production causes major environmental damage, either by border taxes or by bans.