The provision and consumption of healthy diets involves the whole food chain and the consumer, and is interlinked with many other areas such as healthcare, the economy, environment, individual lifestyles, etc., making this a very complex challenge. Research plays a vital role in increasing our understanding of nutrition needs, diet impact on health, disease mechanisms, determinants of consumer choice, development of improved and novel food production approaches, and food market and trade mechanism, to name just a few areas which are relevant in this context.

The Foresight study ‘Tomorrow’s healthy society – research priorities for foods and diets’, carried out by the European Commission’s Joint Research Centre, was initiated at the request of the Directorate-General for Research and Innovation to inform the selection of research challenges to receive funding under the Horizon 2020 programme.