The project’s aims and strategy were presented by the coordinator Enco srl on the 26th of January 2023 during the webinar “Consumers and Mediterranean diet: towards food systems transformation”, organized by the SFS-Med Platform. The online event focused on the consumers’ needs that are relevant to the sustainability of food systems, such as access to healthy, affordable and safe food, access to adequate information enabling informed choices through appropriate tools (including digital tools), education on the environmental, social, and economic consequences of their choices. In particular, a key question was addressed: what is the active role that consumers can play in shaping more sustainable food systems and what are the implications for rethinking Mediterranean diets?

The project SWITCHtoHEALTHY focuses on the consumers’ empowerment through the involvement of more than 300 families in different countries to promote a behavioural change and a higher degree of adherence to the sustainable Mediterranean dietary model. In the project SWITCHtoHEALTHY the consumers are directly tackled by making publicly available new digital tools/educational materials as well as new healthier snacking products developed with the method of co-creation.

The SFS-MED Platform, that organized the online event, is a community to leverage the existing knowledge, experience and skills of food systems actors across the Mediterranean region. The SFS-MED Platform is led by: the International Centre for Advanced Mediterranean Agronomic Studies (CIHEAM), the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) and the Secretariat of the Union for the Mediterranean (UfM), in collaboration with the Partnership for Research and Innovation in the Mediterranean Area (PRIMA), as an affiliated project of the One Planet Network’s Sustainable Food Systems Programme.

The following speakers participated in the SFS-Med webinar held on the 26th of January:

• Marco De La Feld - Head of R&D Unit ENCO srl
• Giuseppe Provenzano - Project Manager, Higher Education and Research Division, Union for the Mediterranean (UfM)
• Hamid El Bilali - Senior Researcher, CIHEAM
• Ferdi Fero - Albanian Consumers Association (ACA)
• Darine Dogui - Director of Studies, Research, Analysis and Comparative Trials, Tunisian National Institute for Consumer Affairs
• Florence Tartanac - Senior Officer, Food and Nutrition Division, FAO
• Aravella Zachariou - Head, Unit for Education for the Environment and Sustainable Development (EESD), Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports and Youth of Cyprus
• Laura De Matteis - Food Systems Expert, Food systems and Food Safety Division, FAO