What is food culture?

The Food Culture Alliance began its life with a shared ambition from key stakeholders to focus on demand generation, as we believe this to be an important lever in driving wider transformation. We define demand as a desire for a food or service and willingness to pay a price for that food or service. Thus, demand is concerned with influencing  consumer preferences and choices. Our collective preferences as a society are influenced by food culture. The Food Culture Alliance is now focussed on enabling demand by leveraging food culture to address society’s food preferences.

Moving to a food system that supports better health and environmental outcomes requires changing our consumption habits. If current consumption patterns fails to shift towards more nutritious, sustainable diets, the global food system will not be able to produce enough food to feed 10 billion people within the limits of the Earth’s biophysical system. [1] 

The foods we eat and the choices we make are intricately shaped by a myriad of factors, including physical, economic, political, and socio-cultural influences. 

Effective strategies must address both supply and demand factors. Strategies primarily centred on the supply side can improve efficiency, enhance nutritional value, and increase the accessibility of specific foods. Yet, for the majority of individuals today, nutrition and sustainability do not rank as their top priorities or selection criteria for food. [2] The societal demand just isn’t there, and it needs to be.

Strategies that drive demand for sustainable food choices are a key component of transforming our food system. As stated in the IPPC’s AR6 Synthesis Report [3]: “Demand-side measures and new ways of end-use service provision can reduce global [greenhouse gas] emissions in end-use sectors by 40 to 70% by 2050 compared to baseline scenarios, while some regions and socioeconomic groups require additional energy and resources. Demand-side mitigation encompasses changes in infrastructure use, end-use technology adoption, and socio-cultural and behavioural change.” 

[1] Malmqvist, T., ​​Rowland, S. & Shepherd, I. Grains of Truth: EAT – GlobeScan global consumer research on a sustainable food system. GlobeScan, EAT Forum. 2021.
[2] Springmann, M., Clark, M., Mason-D’Croz, D. et al. Options for keeping the food system within environmental limits. Nature. 2018; 562: pp. 519–525
[3] H. Lee and J. Romero (eds.). Climate Change 2023: Synthesis Report. Contribution of Working Groups I, II and III to the Sixth Assessment Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. 2023. pp. 35-115.

Just as various overarching factors shape our food consumption patterns, there exist a multitude of forces propelling societal demand for specific foods. Today, most efforts to influence demand are focussed on shaping food environments – factors such as quality, price, accessibility and availability – and addressing individual-level factors, such as improving knowledge of and preference for specific foods, and spurring behaviour change.  But there is a missing link. 

Socio-cultural factors – such as norms, values, and attitudes, innovation and technology, and ideas and trends – are especially significant and influential, as they influence our preferences and choices – and therefore drive demand. 

One example of this is exposure to foods by those around us – whether it is through cultural institutions such as media and entertainment or family members, education, or religion. 

This is precisely where the concept of food culture emerges as a catalyst for generating the demand for nutritious and sustainable diets. Some of our socio-cultural strategies (or food culture strategies as we call them) can enable positive change, some do not. We need to understand which parts of our food culture can be used positively and how they can be deployed as strategies to enable change across society.  Also these strategies can also strengthen other initiatives, such as those focussed on driving change individually, or within the wider food environment.

We already know that society’s appetite and demand for foods that are not healthy or produced unsustainably accelerates climate change, contributing to one-third of global emissions. [1] The food choices we make on aggregate  can have a substantial impact on our climate 

Moreover, food is an integral part of culture and identity. By identifying cultural food norms that orient us towards more climate-friendly food practices, we can encourage broader acceptance of sustainable food choices.

Just as crucially, there exists an inseparable bond between climate change, dietary consumption, and health and wellbeing, creating an interdependent loop. As climate change worsens, extreme weather leads to heightened food insecurity, and a surge of nutrition-related health problems. Already, studies reveal that the rise in extreme weather and climate events has left millions of people exposed to acute food shortages, with the most significant impacts evident across various regions and communities in Africa, Asia, Central, and South America. [2]

Food culture can be an impactful, scalable climate solution.  We just need to prioritise it. 

[1] Crippa, M., Solazzo, E., Guizzardi, D. et al. Food systems are responsible for a third of global anthropogenic GHG emissions. Nat Food 2. 2021. pp. 198–209.
[2] H. Lee and J. Romero (eds.). Climate Change 2023: Synthesis Report. Contribution of Working Groups I, II and III to the Sixth Assessment Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. 2023. pp. 35-115.

Poor diets and malnutrition are among the most pressing global social challenges of our time. The foods we eat have the power to stunt our growth, hinder our health, and make us vulnerable to diseases such as obesity, diabetes, anaemia, and cancer.  As stated in the 2022, Global Nutrition Report: “What we eat across the world continues to fall short of the minimum standards for healthy and sustainable diets with resulting obesity and diet-related non-communicable diseases (NCDs) on the rise and at epidemic levels – around 40% of all adults and 20% of all children are now overweight or obese. Policy interventions to date are failing to reverse these trends.” [1] 

It is also important to note that nutrition doesn’t only impact our physical health. There is emerging evidence that good quality nutrition may play a role in mental health – therefore strategies aimed at improving nutrition can increase overall health and wellbeing. [2] 

Research shows that improving our nutritional intake by transforming the consumption of the foods we eat is critical to ensure health and wellbeing for all. Numerous practitioners and strategies are working to achieve this – ranging from policy, production, knowledge, to accessibility. They are important –  but can only go so far before they hit a culture barrier. They need a supportive culture to work effectively. That’s where leveraging food culture comes in! Helping to speed up transformation by igniting demand and consumption towards more nutritious, sustainable diets. 

[1] Global Nutrition Report 2022. Global Nutrition Report: Stronger commitments for greater action. 2022.
[2] Food for thought: Mental health and nutrition briefing. Mental Health Foundation. 2017.

Food Culture has been overlooked in part due to a prioritisation of tangible  strategies and because food culture is poorly understood. Today, the focus is on interventions that shape food environments – such as quality, price, accessibility and availability –  and address individual-level factors – such as improving knowledge or spurring behaviour change. Because food culture has not been fully defined and understood we do not know how powerful it is nor how to best leverage it.

Food culture provides us with a toolbox consisting of beliefs, values, norms, symbols, labels, etc. These tools can be combined in multiple ways to create social and cultural approaches we can use to shape preferences and transform consumption habits. The Food Culture Alliance has produced a ‘levers of change’ model outlining these strategies. 

Shaping narratives: We derive meaning from the labels and symbols used in our stories around food. This could be, for example, the images used to depict foods in film, around schools and workplaces. By shaping these narratives to reflect healthy, sustainable options, new possibilities, norms and  strategies for action emerge, changing mindsets when it comes to food choices. 

Addressing social identity: Labels, hierarchies (e.g. class, gender) and symbols make up our social identity – which reflects how we fit into society. Social identity plays a role in helping us to express who we are as a group, and we use food to interact and communicate with others via rituals, routines, events, etc. To effect change in global food systems, we must take into account the role social identity plays in how food preferences are developed and maintained.

Changing beliefs: The values, rules and thoughts that shape perceptions and mindsets around food are key to our individual understanding of the role that food plays in our lives and in our society. Changing these beliefs is a vital part of how we leverage food culture to encourage healthier, more sustainable food options, by making them more attractive and acceptable in our belief systems.

Find out more here.

Social and cultural strategies have been successfully shifting perceptions and driving impact across the world for decades on issues ranging from advancing LGBTQIA+ rights and changing hearts and minds through edutainment, to decreasing tobacco consumption and tackling child marriage. 

Taking tobacco smoking as an example, culture has a large impact on smoking rates, and policies that take our cultural beliefs into can shape smoking behaviours. Our case study paper, The Role of ‘Culture’ in Tobacco Policymaking, gives an example of the interplay between culture and government policies, with a particular focus on curbing cigarette smoking. It argues that achieving sustained reductions in smoking prevalence can hinge on addressing the culture of smoking and that as culture evolves, more progressive policies can be enacted. 

Another example is edutainment – that is, media intended to be both educational and enjoyable. MTV Shuga, a powerful campaign that combines entertainment and education, has successfully transformed culture and behaviours, particularly in the realm of sexual and reproductive health. Through engaging storytelling and addressing pressing challenges, it sparks important conversations and empowers individuals to make informed choices. By blending entertainment with educational messaging, MTV Shuga captures attention, evokes empathy, and inspires positive action, challenging long-held beliefs and fostering healthier attitudes. With upcoming campaigns focusing on various social issues, MTV Shuga continues to uplift and empower youth across Africa and India, utilising TV series, digital content, and peer education programmes to drive meaningful change.

Now it’s time to use these social and cultural strategies in food systems to transform food consumption! Over the next three years the Food Culture Alliance will build knowledge in food culture in Kenya, India and Indonesia and learn how to design food culture strategies and tangible actions needed to do so.

Food culture shapes the boundaries of what society finds palatable, transcending the challenges of hunger, affordability, and availability. Even in the depths of dire hunger, there are foods that individuals simply cannot bring themselves to eat, driven by feelings of revulsion and strangeness. Some foods may be labelled as hungry foods [1] or poor man’s foods [2] consumed only when nothing else is available or consumed by the poor, respectively.  Thus culture, as a driver of choice, is present even in low-resource settings.

[1] Nanama S, Frongillo EA. Altered social cohesion and adverse psychological experiences with chronic food insecurity in the non-market economy and complex households of Burkina Faso. Social science & medicine. 2012 Feb 1;74(3):444-51.
[2] Gido EO, Ayuya OI, Owuor G, Bokelmann W. Consumer acceptance of leafy African indigenous vegetables: comparison between rural and urban dwellers. International Journal of Vegetable Science. 2017 Jul 4;23(4):346-61.

Though food cultures may exhibit variances not only between countries but also within them, the overarching concept of food culture can be defined through the building blocks of culture. These are beliefs, values, norms, symbols, codes, rituals, identity, and more. Equally, while there can be more than one food culture in a given country (i.e., subcultures or regional cultures)there may be elements that are common across them– for example there might be shared beliefs or values that cut across regional food cultures within a given country.

At the Food Culture Alliance, we are led by insight on our populations. Through comprehensive exploration and interaction with research, with experts, and local multi-stakeholder groups, we gain insight into the unique cultural contexts that mould food culture (and food preferences). This provides us with the knowledge we need for how strategies and interventions need to be tailored.

Culture is not static; it is evolving. So while it may seem that it can take generations to change culture, there is evidence that attitudes and beliefs, two building blocks of culture, can shift in less than 10 years in conservative societies and  around issues that are quite polarising. In the US, where activism fuelled policy in support of equality for gay and lesbian people – attitudes and norms on LGBTQIA+ identities shifted across society rapidly. 

The society level or societal change, at its core, operates on a grand (macro) scale, encompassing shifts that impact entire societies, countries, or substantial segments of a population. So at this macro level we are not concerned with individual or micro choices. Strategies aimed at the society level can be more impactful and long lasting as they create change conditions for large scale change.

At the Food Culture Alliance, we seek to support food preferences for nutritious and sustainable foods, but what exactly do the terms ‘nutritious’ and ‘sustainable’ mean? We use GAIN’s definition of nutritious foods [1] as ‘those foods that in the context where it is consumed and for the individual who consumes it, provides beneficial nutrients (e.g., vitamins, major and trace minerals, unrefined complex carbohydrates, protein, unsaturated fats, essential amino acids, essential fatty acids, and dietary fibre) and minimises potentially harmful elements (e.g., trans-fats, excess quantities of saturated fats, free sugars, and sodium’. In other words, nutritious foods are those that have high inherent nutritional value, such as wholesome foods like fruits and vegetables; whole grains; legumes; nuts and seeds; unsweetened dairy products; eggs; fish; minimally processed meat. It can also include foods with enhanced nutritional value (e.g., fortified staple foods, lightly milled grain flours) and condiments that have been fortified (e.g., iodized salt, fortified cooking oils). Nutritious foods must also be safe to consume – that is they do not expose us to microbial and chemical contaminants at levels that can cause ill health (e.g., diarrhoea) or death.

There is no currently acceptable definition for sustainable foods. In 2020,  FAO/WHO published the Report on Sustainable Healthy Diets [2] where a series of principles and definitions for healthy sustainable diets were developed. We can draw on those principles and content of that report to develop a working definition of sustainable foods (or sustainably produced foods) for the Food Culture Alliance.  Sustainable foods are those that are sustainably produced, i.e., grown using practices that are protective and respectful of biodiversity and ecosystems, economically fair and affordable, culturally acceptable, and distributed and made accessible in ways that limit environmental impact and the generation of waste.

For example, let’s look at vegetables. If consumed as fresh or cooked ingredients in dishes, one can consider vegetables as nutritious. Whether they are safe will depend on how they were handled in the supply chain and by the consumers. They could be sustainable if they were produced, distributed, sold in a way that minimised the environmental impact (e.g., water use, pesticides), and offered fair wages to farmers and sellers.  So, while we cannot provide a definitive list of ‘nutritious and sustainable foods’, we can use sensible principles that will need to be applied to each context and food combinations.

[1] Global Alliance for Improved Nutrition (GAIN). GAIN’s Definition of Nutritious and Safe Foods. Global Alliance for Improved Nutrition (GAIN). Briefing Paper #8. Geneva, Switzerland, 2021. DOI: https://doi.org/10.36072/bp.8
[2] FAO and WHO (2019), Sustainable healthy diets – Guiding principles. Rome