Transforming global food systems is one of the most important challenges—and opportunities—of our time. The way food is produced, distributed, and consumed has profound impacts on both people and the planet. Today, food systems are responsible for up to one-third of global greenhouse gas emissions, while access to nutritious food remains highly unequal. Around one-third of the world’s population still lacks access to healthy and sustainable diets.
These figures highlight the urgent need to rethink how food systems operate. Achieving environmental sustainability and social well-being requires more than technological innovation alone; it calls for new approaches that actively involve citizens and communities in shaping the future of food. Democratizing decision-making processes and enabling bottom-up participation can help ensure that solutions are not only effective, but also socially accepted, locally relevant, and widely adopted.
Research from Hot or Cool has consistently highlighted the important role of consumption patterns in addressing environmental and social challenges. Studies on lifestyle carbon footprints show that food choices are among the key areas where both individual actions and systemic changes can contribute to climate mitigation while supporting healthier and more equitable societies.
Our work has also shown that sustainable choices cannot depend on individual responsibility alone. People need supportive environments, accessible options, and opportunities to help shape the systems that influence their daily decisions. This growing recognition of the importance of citizen participation is at the heart of the SPOON project.
As highlighted in a recent SPOON article, Building Better Food Systems: When Citizens Become Part of the Solution Through Data and Innovation, empowering citizens to actively contribute to research and decision-making can help create food systems that are healthier, more sustainable, and better adapted to local needs.
But how do people make food choices? Understanding consumers’ knowledge, behaviours, motivations, and everyday constraints is an essential first step. This is where the SPOON project comes in.
SPOON seeks to empower citizens to become active contributors to food system transformation through participatory research and innovation. By implementing citizen science approaches across six pilot regions in Europe, the project enables citizens, researchers, local authorities, and other stakeholders to co-create knowledge about food consumption behaviours and collaboratively design solutions tailored to local needs.
The SPOON methodology combines insights from behavioural science with participatory engagement and digital innovation. Its approach is built around three interconnected components:
- Citizen Science Labs, where citizens actively contribute to data collection, dialogue, and solution development;
- Behavioural Change Interventions, designed to test and support more sustainable and healthy consumption practices;
- The SPOON Digital Toolset, which allows citizens to collect, manage, and share data while maintaining ownership and control over their information.
A key part of the project focuses on identifying the barriers and enablers that influence healthy and sustainable food consumption across Europe. To achieve this, SPOON combines evidence from literature reviews, large-scale surveys, and citizen-generated data collected through its digital tools. The resulting insights will be published at the end of this year, and will help policymakers, researchers, and practitioners better understand the factors shaping food choices and support the development of more effective interventions.
Beyond generating new knowledge, SPOON aims to create participatory processes and tools that can be replicated and adapted across different European contexts. By empowering citizens and fostering collaboration among diverse stakeholders, the project contributes to building food systems that support both human and planetary health.
This vision aligns closely with growing evidence that meaningful change in food systems requires action at multiple levels—from individual behaviours and community initiatives to policy frameworks and market structures. Citizens are not merely consumers within the system; they are essential actors in shaping its future.
Discover more about the SPOON project and follow its upcoming activities, findings, and opportunities for engagement.
