The meeting aimed to come up with a number of solutions that would bring about a radical change in the pattern of food consumption within the three work areas of the second work stream: 1) food environments, 2) demand for food, 3) food waste.
Solutions must be analyzed and examined based on the three main criteria to find solutions that can radically change the situation in a phased manner through:
- Impact: Provides long-term economic, environmental and societal value at scale, addresses the main and most pressing food production challenges, and integrates with other actions and sustainable food systems already in place.
- Actionability: Designed to target improvement in a specific area, defining measurable results, taking into account context, available resources, and accountability.
- Sustainability: the ability to continue to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals by 2030 and beyond.
Solutions should also focus on reducing unhealthy diets as follows:
- Existing diets that provide more quantity but lower quality food;
- Increased availability of cheap calories and lack of a variety of nutritious foods.
- Healthy diets cost, on average, five times more than diets that simply provide enough calories.
- Current food policies, food industry practices and changing consumer preferences are leading to increased consumption and explosive growth in the consumption of ultra-processed foods and beverages.
- Risk factors include low fiber diets, low consumption of fruits, vegetables, legumes, whole grains, nuts, seeds, milk, seafood, calcium, healthy fats that are high in unsaturated fatty acids, and increased consumption of salt/sodium or processed meats and sugar.
- Falling food cost may lead to increased food waste, now a third of food is lost or wasted between farm and plate.
- Today’s long and complex food value chains, together with intensive livestock production, can increase the risk of rapid transmission of foodborne diseases and the spread of zoonotic agents (including viruses), as well as other food-related health risks such as – antimicrobial resistance.