(KB-37) Food is a word of only four letters, yet a world in itself. While food is often associated with pleasure, tastiness and social interaction, we also see a growing list of food-related concerns. An alarming increase of obesity and food-related diseases coexist with malnourishment, food safety incidents and food fraud. Additionally, our food consumption patterns are associated with a high environmental impact, such as decrease in biodiversity and climate change. Food has never been studied and discussed as extensively as in current times, yet food trust is at an all-time low level. Local producers with organic and all natural products coexist with large scale industrialized food production. Ongoing trends, such as new disruptive food technologies, online and out of home purchases of meals, food as a lifestyle will change the way we look at food in 2030.
Given the need for increased circularity and sustainability of our food system, the focus of this programme is the impact of changes in food production and consumption on health and safety aspects. This is complementary to the focus of other programmes that focus on circularity, food security and other sustainability related aspects. The scope of this programme is based on a food systems approach for the western consumers, focusing on production and consumption of individual food products in the context of the whole food system, diet and society. The goal of this programme is to develop knowledge needed to improve the health benefits and safety of our food system, from different perspectives and by taking into account its complexity and related sustainability issues. We aim to develop knowledge for innovative interventions that contribute to healthy and safe food, and place them in the context of a sustainable food system.