Food choices are determined by a wide range of factors (socio-economic conditions, gender, age, etc.). On top of this, mainstream media, social media, and marketing play an important role in food choices, but how they do so is not well understood, nor is the knowledge sufficiently applied to promoting healthy and sustainable diets and discouraging less healthy and less sustainable ones. Infoodmation aims to fill these gaps by increasing the knowledge of how these sources of food information influence food consumption and using it to develop best practices for food system actors, policies, and regulations to support healthier and more sustainable dietary patterns. The project will identify approaches, tools, channels, techniques, and messages used by the private sector, governments, and civil society (Infoodmation Key Actors) to communicate about food (also focusing on vulnerable groups, such as children, adolescents and those of a low socio-economic status). These effects will be assessed, alongside the effectiveness of parental control, the impact of negative vs. positive messages and the effects and spread of misinformation (and how to counter it). EU legislation related to food information will be evaluated in light of these findings, as will policy measures at the national, regional, and local levels in EU member states. These analyses will result in a compendium of best practices, policy briefs, and recommendations for responsible business strategies addressing different Key Actors, supported by capacity building tools and an open-access Knowledge Hub of results, recommendations and materials on food communication. Continuous consultation with food system actors will ensure that the recommendations are relevant, fair, feasible, and adaptable to different contexts. Infoodmation consists of a multidisciplinary consortium with an extensive network of Key Actors, multi-stakeholder initiatives and EU-funded projects related to healthy and sustainable eating.

CLEVERFOOD will facilitate a society-wide mobilisation of European citizens, including children and youth, farmers, entrepreneurs, investors, researchers, educators, knowledge brokers and policy makers to transform the European food system in alignment with the EU Food 2030 Policy Framework, Farm to Fork Strategy and Fit for 55 Package. By providing targeted support for ongoing and emerging projects, partnerships and networks, implementing a pan-European Food 2030 multi-actor and public engagement mechanism and operationalizing an interlinked multi-level structure of connected Policy Labs and Living Labs, CLEVERFOOD will pave the way for a more regenerative, resilient and plant-based food system. Models for transformative multi-level food system governance and strategies for advancing food policies and legislation will be developed in the Policy Labs by launching a peer-learning program, organising inclusive multi-stakeholder dialogues and bringing together policymakers from all governance levels. Social and technological innovations to support sustainable food system transition will be accelerated in the Living Labs by co-creating strategies for removing lock-ins and building sustainable food value chains, mobilizing impact investors, promoting uptake of new technologies and measuring food system transition progress. Food system science competences of children and youth will be boosted by supporting food system science education activities in the Policy Labs and Living Labs and establishing a network to collaborate on transforming higher education teaching. Public engagement, citizen empowerment and mass mobilization will be maximised by supporting multi-actor, public engagement and citizen science activities in the Policy Labs and Living Labs, unlocking the power of influencers, deploying an interactive food systems exhibition, and designating and supporting permanent competence centres across Europe to ensure society-wide commitment to transform the food system.