Policy pathways to healthy and sustainable retail food environments
Retail food environments
Machines
Platforms
Retail environments play a critical role in influencing food choices, health outcomes, and the sustainability of food systems.1BEUC (2023): The illusion of choice: How food environments steer consumers towards unhealthy and unsustainable diets. Available at: https://www.beuc.eu/publications/beuc-x-2023-080_the_illusion_of_choice_report.pdf [20.06.2025] Retail food environments refer specifically to the physical and digital retail spaces in which people access, purchase, and interact with food and beverages. These include supermarkets, convenience stores, independent shops, vending machines, and online platforms. These different food environments shape consumer behavior through factors such as the types of food available, how they are priced, promoted, and placed, and through the broader ownership and governance structures behind them. 2HLPE (2020): Food security and nutrition: building a global narrative towards 2030. A report by the High Level Panel of Experts on Food Security and Nutrition of the Committee on World Food Security, Rome. Available at: http://www.fao.org/3/cb1975en/cb1975en.pdf [20.06.2025] 3BEUC (2023): The illusion of choice: How food environments steer consumers towards unhealthy and unsustainable diets. Available at: https://www.beuc.eu/publications/beuc-x-2023-080_the_illusion_of_choice_report.pdf [20.06.2025] 4FAO (2016): Influencing food environments for healthy diets. Rome: Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations. Available at: https://www.fao.org/3/a-i6484e.pdf [20.06.2025]
The largest and most frequented retail food environments are dominated by products that are high in saturated fat, salt, and sugar, with a strong emphasis on animal-based foods.5Scapin, T., Romaniuk, H., Feeley, A. et al. (2025): Global retail food environments are increasingly dominated by large chains and linked to the rising prevalence of obesity. Nature Food 6, 283–295. Available at: https://doi.org/10.1038/s43016-025-01134-x At the same time, core components of healthy, sustainable diets – vegetables, fruit, legumes, whole grains, nuts, and seeds – are often under-represented or poorly positioned.
Unhealthy Food Sales by Region (2023)
Consumer interest in healthier, more sustainable foods often fails to translate into food purchases. Consumers say that high prices, the limited availability of plant-forward options, and a lack of clear information discourage or prevent them from purchasing food that is more aligned with their values and goals.6McKinsey & Company (2023): Hungry and confused: The winding road to conscious eating. Available at: https://www.mckinsey.com/industries/consumer-packaged-goods/our-insights/hungry-and-confused-the-winding-road-to-conscious-eating [03.06.2025] 7The Boston Consulting Group (2023): Whetting consumers’ appetite for sustainable foods. Available at: https://www.bcg.com/publications/2023/whetting-consumers-appetite-for-sustainable-foods [03.06.2025] 8EIT Food (2024): Fewer consumers report making healthy and sustainable food choices. Available at: https://www.eitfood.eu/news/fewer-consumers-report-making-healthy-and-sustainable-food-choices [03.06.2025] 9EIT Food Consumer Observatory (2025): Consumer Trends Report — An EIT Food Consumer Observatory study on the consumer‑centric trends shaping the future of food systems. Available at: https://www.eitfood.eu/reports/consumer-trends-report [06.06.2025] 10Hazley, D. & Kearney, J.M. (2024): Consumer perceptions of healthy and sustainable eating. Proceedings of the Nutrition Society 83(4), 254–262. Available at: https://doi.org/10.1017/S0029665124004853
Increasing the availability, affordability, and visibility of plant-based options can make it easier for consumers to reduce their intake of animal-sourced foods and foods that are high in saturated fat, salt, and sugar. These shifts not only support better health outcomes but also contribute to substantial reductions in greenhouse gas emissions, land use, and biodiversity loss.11Poore, J. & Nemecek, T. (2018): Reducing food’s environmental impacts through producers and consumers. Science 360, 987–992. Available at: https://doi.org/10.1126/science.aaq0216 12Poore, J. & Nemecek, T. (2018): Reducing food’s environmental impacts through producers and consumers. Science 360, 987–992. Available at: https://doi.org/10.1126/science.aaq0216 13Willett, W. et al. (2019): Food in the Anthropocene: the EAT–Lancet Commission on healthy diets from sustainable food systems. The Lancet 393 (10170), 447–492. Available at: https://doi.org/10.1016/S0140-6736(18)31788-4 Governments play a key role in reshaping retail food environments and empowering more conscious food choices.
Real-world steps toward improving food environments
The Dutch government has committed to shifting the country’s protein consumption to a 50% plant-based/animal-based split by 2030. This aligns with broader sustainability, health, and climate goals, and is part of the Dutch National Protein Strategy. The Dutch Ministry of Agriculture commissioned an assessment of the protein split in supermarket sales using a Protein Tracker. The results are embedded into a national dashboard and used by the government to track progress. This dashboard informs the strategies that retailers use to steer protein ratios toward the 2030 targets, such as promotion adjustments, price parity schemes, and shelf placement.
The UK’s independent National Food Strategy (2021) laid out a roadmap for embedding retailer targets and reporting into a comprehensive national plan, building on the Soft Drinks Industry Levy model and recommending a Food Data Transparency Partnership as a way to track progress across health, sustainability, and welfare outcomes. In 2022, the UK Government Food Strategy committed to consulting on mandatory public reporting by large food businesses – including retailers – using a standard set of health metrics.
Switzerland announced a robust, multi-stakeholder plan to advance both environmental and public-health goals. Its objectives include involvement of all food-industry actors and creating healthy and sustainable food environments. It aims to include measurable targets and performance indicators—such as those related to retail food environments—and mechanisms to monitor food-industry progress.
In order to ease cost-of-living pressures and promote healthier diets, in 2022 Spain temporarily cut VAT on staples (fruits, vegetables, legumes, bread, milk) to 0%, while keeping meat taxed. Prices at point-of-purchase on zero-rated staples dropped by 4.24%, compared to a 1.11% increase in the prices of unaffected products.14Banco de España (2023): Analyzing the VAT cut pass-through in Spain using web-scraped supermarket data and machine learning. Working Paper No. 2321, Banco de España. Available at: https://www.bde.es/f/webbde/SES/Secciones/Publicaciones/PublicacionesSeriadas/DocumentosTrabajo/23/Fich/dt2321e.pdf- England’s Food Promotion and Placement Regulations 2021 bans multi-buy promotions such as ‘buy one get one free’ on 13 product categories in order to steer multi-buy incentives away from unhealthy foods. Additionally, under England’s 2021 Regulations, food items that are high in saturated fat, salt, and sugar are prohibited at checkouts, aisle ends, and other prominent in-store locations, reducing impulse purchases of unhealthy snacks.
Chile requires FOP ‘high in’ labels for food products that exceed limits for sodium, saturated fats, and total sugars as well as total energy. As a result, the country saw a decrease in daily per-capita purchases of calories, sugar, saturated fat, and sodium from these products.15Taillie, L.S., Bercholz, M., Popkin, B. et al. (2024): Decreases in purchases of energy, sodium, sugar, and saturated fat 3 years after implementation of the Chilean food labeling and marketing law: An interrupted time series analysis. PLoS Medicine 21(9), e1004463. Available at: https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pmed.1004463 Additionally, the overall healthiness of packaged foods and beverages improved, with a smaller proportion requiring at least one warning label.16Rebolledo, N., Ferrer-Rosende, P., Reyes, M. et al. (2025): Changes in the critical nutrient content of packaged foods and beverages after the full implementation of the Chilean Food Labeling and Advertising Law: a repeated cross-sectional study. BMC Medicine 23, 46. Available at: https://doi.org/10.1186/s12916-025-03878-6
Ecuador implemented mandatory FOP traffic-light nutrition labeling in 2014 in order to help consumers quickly assess levels of sugar, fat, and salt in packaged foods, using red, amber, and green indicators.
In the United States, retailers participating in the federal nutrition assistance program are required to meet minimum stocking standards for staple foods and fresh produce that align with public dietary guidelines – a policy that has increased healthy food availability among stores that previously fell short.17Powell, L.M., Singleton, C.R., Li, Y. et al. (2019): Changes to SNAP-authorized retailer stocking requirements and the supply of foods and beverages in low-income communities in seven U.S. states. Translational Behavioral Medicine 9(5), 857–864. Available at: https://doi.org/10.1093/tbm/ibz093
KEY TAKEAWAYS
- Adopt national food plans with clear, ambitious sustainability and health targets especially around protein sources, along with methods for monitoring progress among food retailers.
- Lower value-added taxes on healthy, sustainable foods to make them more affordable.18Springmann, M., Dinivitzer, E., Freund, F. et al. (2025): A reform of value‑added taxes on foods can have health, environmental and economic benefits in Europe. Nature Food 6, 161–169. Available at: https://doi.org/10.1038/s43016-024-01097-5 Consider applying a reduced or zero VAT to at least some plant-based alternative categories, while maintaining standard or even higher VAT on their less sustainable animal-based counterparts.
- Restrict pricing, placement, and other retail tactics that promote unhealthy foods, while prioritizing healthy, sustainable options. This might include limits for red and processed meat and foods that are high in saturated fat, salt, and sugar.
- Mandate clear, enforceable front-of-pack (FOP) labels on food products. FOP labels have led households to buy fewer unhealthy foods and pushed companies to reformulate products in order to reduce levels of sugars, fats, and salt.19Fretes, G., Marshall, Q. & Leroy, J.L. (2023): Food Environments: Improving their healthfulness — In: Food Systems for Healthy Diets and Nutrition, Chapter 5. International Food Policy Research Institute. Available at: https://cgspace.cgiar.org/server/api/core/bitstreams/c641d232-b065-4a52-9763-fa587e165974/content 20Drewnowski, A., Monterrosa, E.C., de Pee, S. et al. (2020): Shaping physical, economic, and policy components of the food environment to create sustainable healthy diets. Food and Nutrition Bulletin 41(2_suppl), 74S–86S. Available at: https://doi.org/10.1177/0379572120945904 21International Food Policy Research Institute (2024): 2024 Global Food Policy Report: Food Systems for Healthy Diets and Nutrition. Washington, DC. Available at: https://hdl.handle.net/10568/141760 [20.06.2025]
- Require food retailers receiving public subsidies or benefits to meet minimum stocking standards aligned with national dietary guidelines. Licensing or program participation criteria can ensure retailers offer a core selection of healthy staple foods.
Contributions to the Sustainable Development Goals
Plant-rich retail environments can help to achieve Sustainable Development Goals, since all goals are directly or indirectly connected to sustainable and healthy food.
