Given the increasing popularity of vegan diets, a group of German researchers has created guidelines for chefs in public catering facilities. These take into account nutritional requirements.

In this blog Jessica Paddock and Alan Warde outline a feminist vision of how we might change our eating habits in order to meet our food climate mitigation requirements. 

This paper presents a food sustainability assessment tool called FOODSCALE which contributes to the scientific evidence on the social, economic and environmental impacts of food provision in large-scale organizations, facilitating analysis and potentially subsequent action.

The launch of the new vegetarian alternative to the meatballs – grönsaksbullar - is what Ikea calls “the first step to include a wider variety of healthier and more sustainable food choices”.

This paper discusses urban farmers’ markets in relation to food accessibility, the type and variety of foods they offer and their price and quality. This US based study is the first to itemize farmers’ market products in an entire urban county—in this case the Bronx—and compare them with what is available in nearby stores. It finds that farmers’ markets located in urban areas may not contribute positively to nutrition or health.

Two new papers from researchers at the USDA Human Nutrition Research Center on Aging at Tufts University have analysed the portion sizes and nutritional contents (including calories, sodium, saturated fats and trans fats) of popular menu items served at three national fast-food chains between 1996 and 2013. The researchers found that average calories, sodium, and saturated fat stayed relatively constant, at high levels and the only decline seen was of trans fat of fries that took place between 2000-2009. The products analysed were: French fries, cheeseburgers, grilled chicken sandwich, and regular cola.

The booklet The susDISH analysis method – Sustainability in the catering industry, taking account of both nutritional and environmental aspects in recipe planning is published by the Institute of Agricultural and Nutritional Sciences of the Halle-Wittenberg University.

Advocates of the alternative food movement often insist that food is our "common ground" – that through the very basic human need to eat, we all become entwined in a network of mutual solidarity. In this book, the author explores the contradictions and shortcomings of alternative food activism by examining specific endeavours of the movement through various lenses of social difference – including class, race, gender, and age.

Understanding the influence of neighbourhood food environments in light of recent changes in society and rising levels of overweight and obesity has become very important.