Lunch symposium: Mapping and changing the food environment in Europe: from theory to practice  

Friday 15 November, 12:55 – 13:55 (Lisbon time) 

Organised by:

European Public Health Nutrition Alliance (EPHNA)

Background

Over the last decades, the global food environment has become increasingly obesogenic (Popkin et al 2012). The obesogenic environment is characterised by a global food system that produces more, unhealthy, processed, affordable and effectively marketed food than ever before, interacting with local environmental factors to steadily increase the obesity prevalence (Swinburn et al 2011, WHO 2022).

Food environments are defined as the collective physical, economic, policy and socio-cultural surroundings, opportunities and conditions that influence people’s food and beverage choices and nutritional status (Swinburn et al 2013). Unhealthy food environments lead to unhealthy diets and excess energy intake which increases non-communicable disease (NCD) morbidity and mortality (Harrington et al 2020). Especially families with a lower socioeconomic background and children are more vulnerable to the detrimental effects of unhealthy food environments.

Strengthening food literacy and improving food environments

When the number of cheap, unhealthy food options are promoted and by far outweighs the number of healthy options, consumers will often be tempted to choose the former. As a result, different European countries have been implementing strategies to improve food literacy in order to strengthen consumers’ skills to navigate and make healthy choices in a predominantly unhealthy environment.

However, to make the healthy choice more obvious, it is also important to identify and change unhealthy food environments. Both at an organizational level (i.e. within schools, work settings, sports clubs) and at community level (i.e. on the road, in the neighborhood). As “food environments” are a broad concept, they include public settings, such as early childhood education centres, primary and secondary schools, worksite cafeterias in hospitals and government buildings, as well as sports clubs, sporting events, and amusement parks.

European Public Health Nutrition Alliance (EPHNA)

This workshop is organized by the European Public Health Nutrition Alliance, a 10-year collaboration of independent nutrition communication centers among 19 countries. We will start by defining food environments and describing different sub food environments. We will then showcase how research and data can be applied for identifying (un)healthy food environments and for developing interventions to tackle or reinforce these. First, a toolkit for local governments which integrates research data and consumer insights to address vulnerable food environments in Flanders (Belgium) will be demonstrated. Next, good practices from different European countries that focus on both strengthening food literacy skills and changing food environments will be presented. Finally, work done in Ireland will provide tangible examples of how awareness can be heightened by the development of public health campaigns and work with stakeholders.

Main messages

• Provide definitions and a state of play on food environments and policies in
• Give an overview of how scientific evidence is being translated into practical tools and interventions throughout Europe, to help consumers in unhealthy food environments.
• Inform and inspire the audience on how research data can be applied into practice to improve the food environment, thereby enabling healthier food choices and enhancing

Programme

Moderator: Ana Rito, Centre for Studies and Research in Social Dynamics and Health (CEIDSS), Portugal 

Speaker 1: Loes Neven, Flemish Centre for Healthy Living, Belgium

Speaker 2: Joana Caldeira, Safefood, Ireland  

Registration

Registration is not required. Delegates who are registered for the main EPH Conference can attend free of charge. Get your lunch in the Exhibiton / Catering Area, walk in and join the session. 

References

Harrington JM, Griffin C, and Vandevijvere S, for the Food-EPI project team. The Healthy Food Environment Policy Index (Food-EPI): Evidence Document for Ireland 2020. Cork, School of Public Health, University College Cork 2020.
Popkin BM, Adair LS & Ng SW (2012) Global nutrition transition and the pandemic of obesity in developing countries. Nutr Rev 70, 3–21.
Swinburn BA, Sacks G, Hall KD et al. (2011) The global obesity pandemic: shaped by global drivers and local environments. Lancet 378, 804–814.
Swinburn BA, Sacks G, Vandevijvere S, Kumanyika S, Lobstein T, Neal B, et al. INFORMAS (international network for food and obesity/non-communicable diseases research, monitoring and action support): overview and key principles. Obes Rev. 2013;14(Suppl 1):1.
WHO European Regional Obesity Report 2022. Copenhagen: WHO Regional Office for Europe; 2022.