We assume that our choices about what to eat are entirely our own responsibility. Yet this is not entirely true – our choices are influenced by adverts and marketing, limited by the options we have available to us, and constrained by the money we can afford to spend.
This is why a group of advisors, including Janis Baird at the University of Southampton, have told the European Commission that the transition to healthier, more sustainable diets cannot be left to consumers alone.
Changing the “food environment”
Janis Baird, Professor of Public Health and Epidemiology at the MRC Lifecourse Epidemiology Centre, helped put forward the recommendations to advise the European Commission on how to transform Europe’s food consumption to become healthier and more sustainable.
The EU has, to date, focused on providing consumers with more information. Yet experts agree that this is not enough, as people choose food based on many factors including social and family factors, food availability and pricing.
To make sustainable, healthy food an easy and affordable choice, the advisors say policies must unburden the consumer and address the whole “food environment”. This refers to anywhere where food is bought, eaten and discussed including shops, homes, schools, workplaces and, increasingly, digital media.
“Policies and interventions should focus on changing the food system to ensure that consumers are exposed to healthier food environments. Without this, people from disadvantaged backgrounds, who lack the social and financial resources to make healthy food choices, will continue to have poor diets and high levels of overweight and obesity.”
Professor Janis Baird
“Interventions that modify the food system, for example through placement of healthier foods in more prominent locations, have greater potential to improve food choice for all groups regardless of their socio-economic background. This has been a focus of our work here in Southampton.”
Professor Janis Baird
Link to SAPAE website Towards sustainable food consumption – SAPEA
