Food is essential for life and health, but the long term adequacy of our food supply is under threat due to a confluence of many economic, cultural and environmental factors, resulting from increased globalization and industrialisation. Recent decades have seen trends towards less sustainable and nutritionally adequate diets, with EU citizens consuming too much energy, fat, sugar and salt1. Of the six WHO regions, Europe has experienced an unprecedented rise in obesity and is the most severely affected by non-communicable diseases (NCDs), including type 2 diabetes, food-related cancer, cardiovascular disease2. Localisation of sustainable food systems is a possible means to achieve positive health and environmental outcomes, and local and regional policy makers have been urged to work with urban populations to develop food systems which meet their needs. Solutions based on complete environmental changes, such as the UK Sustainable Food Cities Partnerships have gained support because of the significant array of benefits they offer for society – healthier local economies, reduced food wastage and pollution and potentially health benefits. However, there is a need to develop new research approaches to identify how these, and other initiatives, can promote nutritional well-being, to shape future nutrition and food policy and to document the new skills required by the public health nutrition workforce to support and foster healthy diets through local food systems.
The key objectives of this research were i) a Toolkit for monitoring and optimising gains in nutritional health and well-being and ii) a set of new Guidelines to deliver new competencies for the public health nutrition workforce. This knowledge will contribute towards shaping future policy directions in food and nutrition for the EU citizen.
