European doctors support the EU Policy Action Brief for a healthy sustainable, and just EU food system
A coalition of over 90 organisations from different food system communities — from farmers, food manufacturers, and retailers to food services, public health actors, cities, and consumer groups — proudly announces the launch of the EU Policy Action Brief: "Building a healthy, sustainable, and just EU food system", inspired by the EAT-Lancet science.
Despite different starting points, the food system communities found overlapping interests, demonstrating that meaningful policy change for a healthier, more sustainable, and more just food system is both needed and achievable.
This landmark policy brief is the result of a unique collaborative effort facilitated by EAT, Physicians Association for Nutrition (PAN International), The Protein Project, BirdLife Europe, FEAST, Convene, and Fern, to translate scientific evidence into concrete policy recommendations for the EU.
A Food System Under Strain
With Europe's food system facing growing pressures from diet-related diseases and rising public healthcare system costs, growing economic pressures for farmers, heat, droughts, floods and wildfires, rising food prices for consumers, and import dependencies from third countries, the coalition stresses that the food system remains our most powerful lever for positive change.
The policy brief leverages the scientific vision, definitions, and guardrails established by the 2025 EAT-Lancet Commission to guide healthier, more sustainable, and more just food systems. It focuses on driving progress across three main pillars:
Sustainable Production
Healthy Consumption (guided by the Planetary Health Diet)
Reduced Food Waste and Loss
Six Critical Policy Packages for Action
The EU Policy Action Brief is built on shared insights from food system actors who were asked the question: which policy change could help you to make progress faster? All insights are grouped into 6 overarching and actionable policy packages for EU policymakers.
Value Chain Development - Strengthen sustainable production and consumption of healthier and more sustainable foods, reduce food waste and loss, and enable better cross value chain collaboration.
Fiscal and Economic Support - Support farmers and other actors' transition and improve food affordability and food environments.
Public Procurement - Encourage public institutions to procure healthier, more sustainable, and more just food, to create stable demand and market confidence.
Information, Transparency, and Trust - Create clear and consistent rules on labelling, advertising, and campaigns to inform choices.
Research, Innovation, and Knowledge Sharing - Invest in research, innovation, knowledge sharing, and pilots that speed up food system adaptation.
Trade and Market Rules - Ensure fair trading practices in the EU single market, align imported products with EU social and environmental standards, and harmonise fortification rules.
Across all six Communities for Action, one consistent message emerges: They are
ready to act, and are making progress, but they need coherent, aligned, and cross-sectoral EU policy action and a policy environment that enables them to do more, including incentives, removal of structural barriers, enabling standards, coherent rules, public investment and institutional legitimacy.
A Call for Political Leadership
The participating communities are calling on EU institutions to establish an EU Action Plan for a healthy, sustainable, and just food system — delivering it coherently while actively involving scientists and food system communities in its design, implementation, and evaluation.
"EU policy action is needed to support Europeans to produce food more sustainably and to eat more healthily," the coalition stated. "The science is clear. There is a broad coalition of actors who have shown the capacity of convergence around common priorities. What is needed now is the political leadership to take action together."
Image: iStock / LanaSweet