Towards sustainable food consumption: Evidence review report

With the approval of the EU Green Deal in 2020, the European Union embarked on a mission to respond to the climate and environmental emergencies of our time, while leaving no one behind. To achieve these objectives requires extraordinary coordination among a wide range of policy sectors. 
There is now general recognition that making our food system more sustainable, healthy and fair is a key lever in this overall transition, which is why the Farm-to-Fork Strategy lies at the heart of the Green Deal. To inform the development of the Strategy, the Scientific Advice Mechanism already delivered scientific advice on Towards a sustainable food system in 2020.
Building on this previous advice, and to inform the 2023 revision of the Farm-to-Fork Strategy, the Commissioners for Health and Food Safety and for Innovation, Research, Culture, Education and Youth asked the Group of Chief Scientific Advisors to the European Commission to deliver science policy advice on a more specific area of the food system: food consumption and the food environment. They asked:
What tools could be used at EU level, in addition to those mentioned in the 2020 Farm-to-Fork Strategy, to overcome the barriers preventing consumers [from adopting] sustainable and healthy diets, fostering the necessary change towards sustainability in the food environment? The Group’s advice should be based on an analysis that identifies the elements refraining consumers from making healthy and sustainable choices.
To address this question, SAPEA assembled an outstanding, independent, international and interdisciplinary working group of experts in the field, nominated by academies of science and academy networks. Between October 2022 and April 2023, the working group reviewed and compiled the latest evidence on the subject to create this 12th SAPEA Evidence Review Report. This report informs the accompanying Scientific Opinion of the Group of Chief Scientific Advisors, which contains the requested policy recommendations. This project was coordinated by ALLEA, the European Federation of Academies of Sciences and Humanities, acting as the lead network on behalf of SAPEA.