Put Change on the Menu

2022 - 2024

Contrary to the dominant narrative that tends to blame consumers for making the ‘wrong’ food choices, there is no such thing as a free consumer choice taken in a vacuum and based on the best available information.¹ It is rather about a complex range of influences beyond individual control. These choices are shaped by the so-called ‘food environments’, as defined by the FAO:

Food environments are the “physical, economic, political and socio-cultural context in which consumers engage with the food system to make their decisions about acquiring, preparing and consuming food”.² The factors influencing consumer choice range from marketing and advertising, promotional offers, food availability and price, spatial layout in supermarkets and many more.

Currently, food environments do not ensure that the healthy and sustainable option is always the easiest one for consumers.³

Most individuals do not realise the extent to which their choices are steered by a multiplicity of factors, from the ads they keep seeing on billboards in the street to the range of food products that is available at the supermarket where they shop, through the promotional offers and discounts offered by retailers.

¹ Scientific Advice Mechanism, Group of Chief Scientific Advisors (2020) Towards a sustainable food system. Scientific Opinion Nr. 8. European Commission
² HLPE (2017) Nutrition and food systems. A report by the High Level Panel of Experts on Food Security and Nutrition of the Committee on World Food Security, Rome.
³ Farm to Fork Strategy https://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/EN/TXT/?uri=CELEX:52020DC0381

In its 2020 ‘Farm to Fork’ Strategy for fairer, healthier, and greener food and farming, the European Commission announced a new EU legislative Framework for a Sustainable Food System for 2023. This horizontal law will introduce definitions, sustainability objectives and principles to ensure that existing and future EU legislation about food consistently contributes towards the goal of a sustainable food system which operates within planetary boundaries.

For Eurogroup for Animals, BEUC and EPHA, it is vital that the Framework for a Sustainable Food System paves the ground for further concrete policy measures addressing specific elements of food environments. Specifically, the healthy and sustainable food choice must be:

The most affordable one
Widely available and attractive one
The most marketed one
Easy when eating out
The default choice for public procurement
And finally, food must become healthier and more sustainable by design.

Eurogroup for Animals, the European Consumer Organisation (BEUC) and the European Public Health Alliance (EPHA) have joined forces in 2022 for a project called “Put Change on the Menu” to move the debate around food environments to the forefront and campaign for food environments that promote healthy sustainable diets with ‘less and better’ animal products.

Eurogroup for Animals

The Brussels-based pan European animal advocacy umbrella federating a network of more than 80 animal advocacy groups. Eurogroup for Animals is a trusted thought-leader with outstanding relationships in all EU institutions and has succeeded in encouraging the EU to adopt higher legal standards for animal protection throughout the past decades.

website: www.eurogroupforanimals.org

The European Consumer Organisation (BEUC)

The Brussels-based federation of 46 independent national consumer organisations from 32 European countries. BEUC is a non-profit association and for more than 60 years it has been bringing together consumer organisations to promote, defend and represent the interests of European consumers in the development and implementation of European Union policies. BEUC’s role is to inform its member organisations about EU developments, represent them in relevant EU dossiers and act as the consumer voice in Europe. BEUC’s unique position in representing the interests of consumers in all EU Member States gives the organisation a strong weighing with the EU institutions.

website: www.beuc.eu

European Public Health Alliance (EPHA)

A leading European civil society health alliance in Brussels, made up of 80 public health NGOs, patient groups, health professionals and disease groups, working to improve health and strengthen the voice of public health in Europe. Among its priorities EPHA advocates for policies to tackle the common risk factors to non-communicable diseases (NCDs), and advance a transition towards resilient, sustainable food systems with health-enabling food environments. EPHA is a change agent for the public interest, independent of commercial funding.

website: www.epha.org

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