Food Supply Chain, Consumer Choice and Obesity

Obesity is a complex disease that in many cases is determined by the lifestyle of individuals especially in relation to unhealthy dietary habits and lack of physical exercise. Overweight and obese people make up about half the population of many countries in the world. Non-communicable diseases, such as type-2 diabetes, cardiovascular diseases, coronary heart diseases and so on, caused by the obesity epidemic are dramatically affecting the health of people and health budget of governments. According to the OECD, by 2050 around 92 million people will die prematurely from obesity and related diseases and governments will spend about 8.4% of their total health budget on treating obesity-related diseases.

However, although policy makers have put in place different information measures and market measures to combat the obesity epidemic, this pathology continues to be a pressing public health issue and the responsibility of its consequences cannot be left in the hands of consumers alone. As a result, this special issue will welcome studies that aim at understanding benefits and/or costs of policies that supply chain actors can or must put in place to tackle this pathology of both affluent and non-affluent societies. We would like to provide a picture of current and future initiatives of the food and drink industry (food manufacturers, restaurants, retailers and others) to help different segments of consumers to make healthier food choices by changing products, pricing, packaging, or marketing and advertising approach.

Dear Colleagues,

We are organizing a Special Issue of the International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health on initiatives that stakeholders of the food supply chains can or must implement to tackle the obesity epidemic.

The heavy burden of obesity and related non-communicable diseases continue to be amongst the most challenging health care issues that policy makers face in many countries in the world. With this Special Issue, we hope to collect information about the impact in terms of benefit and/or costs of existing and innovative initiatives that the food and drink industry has introduced to limit and prevent the negative effects that the epidemic obesity is having on the health of individuals and budgets of governments. These initiatives have emerged in response to regulatory mandates or consumer concerns over unhealthy diets.

This collection will complement the bulk of existing literature that focusses on consumers’ attitudes, preferences, choices and purchasing behavior of healthy or unhealthy food products.

This Special Issue is open to any current and future policies that stakeholders can or must implement in different countries in the world to help different segments of consumers to make healthier food choices by changing products, pricing, packaging, or marketing and advertising approach. The listed keywords suggest just a few of the many possibilities.

Dr. Giuseppe Nocella
Prof. Dr. Chittur Srinivasan
Guest Editors

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• Product reformulation
• Food labelling
• Menu labelling
• Advertising restrictions
• Changes in portion sizes
• Food taxes
• Food subsidies
• Voluntary arrangements