EU initiatives

The NU-AGE project will explore how diet can help European seniors to live a healthier, longer life by new dietary strategies addressing the specific needs of elderly population in Europe.

Over the past decade, most EU Member States have identified food and health as key priorities. This is in response to increases in obesity and diet-related chronic diseases such as diabetes and cardiovascular diseases amongst their populations. Also an insufficient nutrient supply in subgroups of the populations and special demands in ageing societies are identified as abiding challenges.

Unhealthy diets are one of the greatest public health challenges of the 21st century. The tip of the iceberg is the dramatically increasing proportion of people suffering from obesity and overweight in Europe. Recognising the importance of diet quality, many campaigns promoting healthy eating and physical activity have been launched in an attempt to reverse the obesity trend, but few have been assessed.

The environment of infants and children has drastically changed in Europe during the last decades as reflected in alterations of behaviour, unhealthy dietary habits and low physical activity. To stop the resulting epidemic of diet- and lifestyle-induced morbidity, evidence-based efficient approaches are needed.

There is increasing recognition that innovation is a task for all actors in the food chain, since innovation can be beneficial to the food chain as a whole and lead to sustainable novel applications. Building on this idea, RECAPT aims to support a process that will lead to closer collaborative management of innovations along the food supply chain.

One size fits all dietary advice is often provided to combat public health issues but is not necessarily the most effective technique for improving public health. Food4me is investigating personalised nutrition; the possibility of designing diets tailored specifically to an individual’s characteristics.

EURRECA is a collaborative network developing quality assured, harmonised nutrient recommendations across Europe. The network will focus on identifying and addressing micronutrients of concern to vulnerable population groups and incorporate these findings into country-specific Food Based Dietary Guidelines.

EUFIC is an active participant of the European Platform for Action committed to helping fight one of the most serious health challenges facing the EU today: Obesity.

The 3-year EU Seventh Framework-funded project FLABEL (Food Labelling to Advance Better Education for Life), will provide state-of-the-art science on nutrition labels and consumer behaviour as well as best practice guidelines for future research, industry and policy-makers.