Supermarkets provide the majority of food to consumers in the Western world and are therefore an excellent site for research into food environment interventions. However, such interventions can be hard to research and implement due to the misalignment of public health and commercial priorities, as well as difficulties with brokering relationships between supermarkets and researchers. This paper distils the experience of several studies to provide specific recommendations for conducting high quality research with commercial retail chains.

This study looked at consumer perceptions surrounding the healthiness of processed foods and how this relates to food classification systems and nutrient profiling. It involved an online survey of 498 Swiss consumers. Participants were asked to describe their associations and feelings towards ‘food produced by the food industry’.

Food loss and waste is thought to contribute to 24% of greenhouse gas emissions from the global food system, which amounts to 6% of total emissions. It is generally assumed that if food loss and waste were to decrease, less food would need to be produced, which would ultimately reduce associated environmental impacts. However, this study looks at an alternative scenario where reduced food loss and waste causes a ‘rebound effect’ in which the resultant price decreases cause an increase in consumption.

This paper uses data on the real life (as opposed to modelled) dietary practices of vegans, vegetarians and meat eaters to compare environmental impacts across all major environmental measures. The paper links one of the largest datasets available on the true dietary practice of different self-identified dietary groups (vegan, vegetarian, meat eater etc.), with data on the environmental impact of 589 foods across ten environmental measures from 570 life-cycle assessments.  

The joint forces of climate change and violent conflict are pushing Nigeria’s food security to the brink. It is estimated that over 25 million Nigerians will be food insecure in the coming months, with the country dropping from 97 to 107 out of 133 in international food security rankings. With two thirds of the labour force working in agriculture, the increasing extreme weather patterns brought about by climate change are putting the country under severe threat. Simultaneously, Boko Harma extremist groups continue to occupy the North of the country, where the majority of agricultural production takes place.

Russia has pulled out of the Black Seas Grain Initiative, risking the loss of millions of tonnes of food from the global market. The landmark deal made last summer provided assurance that ships entering and leaving ports in Ukraine would not be attacked. This allowed 32.9 mn tonnes of food to be exported to food insecure regions in Africa, the Middle East and Asia since August. The Kremlin announced on Monday that Russia would suspend the initiative until its demand to get its own agricultural shipments to the world are met, despite the fact that Russia has been exporting record quantities of wheat and fertilisers.

This book introduces critical mapping as a problematizing, reflective approach for analysing systemic societal problems like food, scoping out existing solutions, and finding opportunities for sustainable design intervention.

Universal Food Security offers an accessible introduction to key areas that are driving research, investment and policy. Denning provides a well informed, partial account of how to solve global security through science led agricultural innovation. His approach sets out several key features for food system transformation: sustainable intensification, market infrastructure, postharvest stewardship, healthy diets and social protection.   

This report establishes how the UK Food Standards Agency (FSA) are responding to rising levels of food insecurity in the UK. With the price of food rising alongside other costs, UK consumers are reducing their spending on food, and decisions over what food to buy are coming under increased pressure. With the statutory objective of protecting consumers, the FSA is changing its practices to understand how food insecurity pressures are increasing the risk of unsafe practice and unsafe or inauthentic food.