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Adopting Sustainable Dietary Patterns: Effects of Food Labeling, Food Choices, and Eating Behaviors (2nd Edition)

A special issue of Nutrients (ISSN 2072-6643). This special issue belongs to the section "Nutrition and Public Health".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: 15 August 2025 | Viewed by 2405

Special Issue Editor


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Guest Editor
Centre for Regulatory Research and Innovation, Protein Industries Canada, 200-1965 Broad Street, Regina, SK S4P 1Y1, Canada
Interests: sustainable dietary patterns; decreased risk of disease; effects of regulation and policy on dietary choices; consumer insights
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

The four domains of sustainability are health, the environment, sociocultural factors, and economics. Food systems are undergoing a renaissance and re-positioning their value as proponents of sustainable dietary patterns. Many of these efforts focus on providing consumers with the information required to make sustainable food choices. These domains increasingly underpin the strategic development of food policies and dietary guidelines. Industry stakeholders are incorporating measures of sustainability into supply chain and innovation pipelines so that they can be leveraged as salient factors of differentiation to consumers. At the same time, regulatory and policy efforts aim to facilitate sustainable food systems and mitigate the risks of consumers being misled by information lacking scientific rigor and substantiation.

This Special Issue will examine the consumer–food interface within the context of sustainable dietary patterns. Studies will focus on labeling and other tools that can affect dietary choice and/or eating behaviors that enhance one or more domains of sustainable diets. Random clinical trials, narrative reviews, systematic reviews with and without meta-analyses, and commentaries are welcomed as submissions for this issue. Relevant topics include the modeling effects of labeling strategies on the sustainability metrics of dietary patterns; changes in the retail positioning of food categories over time; behavioral strategies that affect dietary patterns; the analysis of regulatory and policy tools; and consumer insights. However, other relevant topics that provide new and innovative data, discussion, and/or highlight challenges are also welcome.

Dr. Christopher P. F. Marinangeli
Guest Editor

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Keywords

  • labeling
  • sustainability
  • consumer behavior
  • nutrition
  • health
  • environment
  • sociocultural
  • economics

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Published Papers (3 papers)

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Research

12 pages, 218 KiB  
Article
Health Professionals’ Knowledge and Views on the Use of Convenience Cooking Products: An Australian Cross-Sectional Study
by Natasha Brasington, Emma L. Beckett, Taiwo O. Akanbi and Penta Pristijono
Nutrients 2025, 17(7), 1156; https://doi.org/10.3390/nu17071156 - 26 Mar 2025
Viewed by 306
Abstract
Background/Objectives: Convenience cooking foods have gained popularity as they reduce the time and effort spent on preparation. These types of products are often deemed unhealthy and low in nutrients. However, if these products had an adequate serving and variety of vegetables and healthful [...] Read more.
Background/Objectives: Convenience cooking foods have gained popularity as they reduce the time and effort spent on preparation. These types of products are often deemed unhealthy and low in nutrients. However, if these products had an adequate serving and variety of vegetables and healthful sources of protein, they could be a good time-efficient and cost-effective alternative. However, there is no established evidence on health professionals’ opinions and ideas about convenience cooking products, nor is their information whether if they consume them or recommend them to their patients/clients, or whether they could provide a solution when patients are confronted with decision fatigue. The objective of the present study is to define the opinions that health professionals have regarding convenience cooking products and their healthfulness, if they use these products themselves, if they recommend these products to clients, and their ideas regarding decision fatigue and the use of convenience cooking products. Methods: A cross-sectional survey analysed the opinions of 143 Australian health professional participants, including dietitians, nutritionists, and doctors on their use of the products, if they recommend them to their clients, their health opinions of the products and decision fatigue. Results: The findings indicate that 74.8% of the participants use convenience products. The participant’s professions (p = 0.0014) and their personal usage of the products (p = 0.0154) significantly correlated with their recommending these products. Additionally, 86.7% of participants believed that decision fatigue impacts food choices. Conclusion: These insights highlight the complex role of convenience cooking products in dietary practices, particularly for time-poor individuals, and provide insight into the potential for future improvements in the nutritional formulations of these products to enhance their acceptability among health professionals. Full article
18 pages, 564 KiB  
Article
Changes in Children’s Adherence to Sustainable Healthy Diets During the Implementation of Chile’s Food Labelling and Advertising Law: A Longitudinal Study (2016–2019)
by Carolina Venegas Hargous, Liliana Orellana, Camila Corvalan, Steven Allender and Colin Bell
Nutrients 2025, 17(6), 1041; https://doi.org/10.3390/nu17061041 - 16 Mar 2025
Viewed by 532
Abstract
Objectives: This longitudinal study measured changes in adherence to sustainable healthy diets in 698 Chilean children (aged 3–6 years at baseline) over the period that Chile’s Food Labelling and Advertising Law was implemented. Methods: Dietary data were collected annually from 2016 [...] Read more.
Objectives: This longitudinal study measured changes in adherence to sustainable healthy diets in 698 Chilean children (aged 3–6 years at baseline) over the period that Chile’s Food Labelling and Advertising Law was implemented. Methods: Dietary data were collected annually from 2016 to 2019 applying single multiple-pass 24 h dietary recalls to children’s primary caretakers. The Planetary Health Diet Index for Children and Adolescents (PHDI-C) was used to quantify adherence to sustainable healthy diets where higher scores indicate better adherence. Linear mixed models were fitted to estimate the change in PHDI-C total and individual component scores from 2016 to 2019. Results: Mean total PHDI-C score decreased from 50.1 points in 2016 to 46.3 and 46.1 in 2018 and 2019, respectively (p-value < 0.001), suggesting that children’s overall adherence to sustainable healthy diets was low and decreased over time. Intake of legumes, fruits, dark green vegetables, red and orange vegetables, and vegetable oils decreased, while intake of palm oil, red meats, and animal fats increased, resulting in small but significant declines in eight PHDI-C component scores. Whole cereal intake increased, while the consumption of dairy products and added sugars decreased, resulting in improvements in three PHDI-C component scores. Conclusions: Aside from the decrease in added sugar intake, all dietary changes observed in this study were consistent with trends described among children transitioning from pre-school age to school age. The Law might have contributed to reducing children’s added sugar intake, but further research is required to establish causality. Full article
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23 pages, 3772 KiB  
Article
Trajectories of Nutritional Quality, Diet-Related Environmental Impact, and Diet Cost in China: How Much Does Ultra-Processed Food and Drink Consumption Matter?
by Zhiyao Chang, Elise F. Talsma, Hongyi Cai, Shenggen Fan, Yuanying Ni, Xin Wen, Pieter van ‘t Veer and Sander Biesbroek
Nutrients 2025, 17(2), 334; https://doi.org/10.3390/nu17020334 - 17 Jan 2025
Viewed by 1268
Abstract
Background: Rapid socio-economic developments confront China with a rising consumption of ultra-processed foods (UPFs) and ultra-processed drinks (UPDs). This study aims to evaluate their potential impact on diet transformation towards sustainability including nutrition, environmental sustainability, and diet-related cost. Methods: Dietary intake was assessed [...] Read more.
Background: Rapid socio-economic developments confront China with a rising consumption of ultra-processed foods (UPFs) and ultra-processed drinks (UPDs). This study aims to evaluate their potential impact on diet transformation towards sustainability including nutrition, environmental sustainability, and diet-related cost. Methods: Dietary intake was assessed by 24 h recalls in 27,311 participants (age: 40.5 ± 19.7; female, 51.1%) in the China Health and Nutrition Survey 1997–2011. The nutrient quality, environmental sustainability (greenhouse gas emission (GHGE), total water use (TWU), land use (LU), and diet cost were assessed as diet-related sustainability indicators. Foods and drinks were classified according to the degree of processing based on NOVA. Two-level mixed effects models were applied to explore the secular trends of the sustainability indicators being nested within random effect (individual level). Results: UPFs and UPDs are less nutrient-dense, containing more energy, sodium, and added sugar compared to unprocessed or minimally processed foods and drinks (MPFs and MPDs). UPFs and UPDs were higher for GHGE and TWU but lower for LU. Costs of UPDs tripled those of MPDs. In the period of 1997–2011, the percentage of UPFs and UPDs per 2000 kcal increased for both sexes. The increase in UPFs and UPDs was associated with a lower nutrient quality but a higher environmental impact and diet cost. Conclusions: From 1997 to 2011, there was a significant increase in the consumption of UPFs and UPDs in China. This trend had negative impacts on both the nutrient quality and environmental impact; meanwhile, it led to increased diet costs. Policies to reduce the production and consumption of UPFs and UPDs should be reinforced by making alternatives for ultra-processed breakfast cereals, snacks, and alcoholic beverages available and acceptable. Additionally, instead of only focusing on high-UPFD consumers, attention is needed on the currently low-UPFD consumers as their consumption has been growing rapidly in the last decades. Full article
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