Environmentally sustainable food consumption

This systematic map by the Stockholm Environment Institute reviews 227 articles to categorize public policy interventions aimed at promoting environmentally sustainable food consumption, highlighting a research bias toward high-income countries and non-intrusive policy instruments.

• The evidence base for public policy interventions on sustainable food consumption is heavily skewed toward high-income countries, which account for 92% of the studies, while low-income countries represent only 4%.
• Research is dominated by non-intrusive policy instruments, particularly information-based interventions. Labels were the focus of 50% of reviewed studies, while information campaigns/education accounted for 10%, and menu design changes and choice context restrictions each accounted for 8%.
• Market-based interventions make up 13% of the total interventions reviewed, with taxes comprising two-thirds of that group. Administrative interventions are very rare, appearing in less than 1% of cases.
• The majority of studies rely on indirect measures and hypothetical data: 85% used proxies for environmental impact rather than direct impacts, and 61% used stated preferences to evaluate interventions.
• There is a critical need for research to move beyond the European and North American contexts and transition from laboratory settings to real-world, large-scale interventions involving public and private sector stakeholders.

APA

Stockholm Environment Institute (2024). Environmentally sustainable food consumption. https://www.sei.org/publications/environmentally-sustainable-food-consumption/

Chicago

Stockholm Environment Institute. Environmentally sustainable food consumption. 2024. https://www.sei.org/publications/environmentally-sustainable-food-consumption/.

Wikipedia

{{cite report |author=Stockholm Environment Institute |title=Environmentally sustainable food consumption |date=23 April 2024 |url=https://www.sei.org/publications/environmentally-sustainable-food-consumption/ |access-date=17 August 2026 |via=Climate Insights Directory}}

BibTeX

@techreport{stockholmenvironmentinstitute2024environmentally, author = {{Stockholm Environment Institute}}, title = {{Environmentally sustainable food consumption}}, institution = {Stockholm Environment Institute}, year = {2024}, month = apr, url = {https://www.sei.org/publications/environmentally-sustainable-food-consumption/}, urldate = {2026-08-17}, note = {Indexed by Climate Insights Directory} }