Value Chains for Nutritious and Sustainable Diets: Economic and Policy Levers for Better Nutritional Outcomes

The transformation in food value chains significantly impacts dietary patterns, and nutritional outcomes. In recent years, mounting evidence has revealed the profound impact of value chain mechanisms, spanning prices, contracts, standards, subsidies, labelling, and public procurement, on the quality and safety of diets. The ongoing supermarket and “midstream” revolutions, alongside the upsurge in fast-food consumption and urban food environments, highlight the complexity and speed of food system changes. Despite notable progress in improving caloric intake globally, the “triple burden” of malnutrition, comprising undernutrition, hidden hunger (micronutrient deficiencies), and surging rates of overweight and obesity, remains a pressing challenge. The EAT-Lancet Commission's “Planetary Health Diet” has also positioned dietary quality at the nexus of sustainability, nutrition, and health, prompting a wave of research and policy debates on pathways toward better and sustainable diets for people and the planet. Research shows that interventions such as investments for smallholder inclusion, targeted subsidies, price manipulation, fortification, regulation, and labelling can meaningfully shape both the supply and demand for nutritious foods in diverse contexts. Additionally, strengthening value chains for nutrient-dense foods, including fish, dairy, and animal-sourced products, plays a pivotal role in food safety, affordability, and dietary diversity, while food loss and waste reduction (as emphasized by SDG 12.3 and EAT-Lancet 2025) is increasingly recognized as a lever for both nutrition and environmental goals. Persistent questions include which value chain nodes and policy levers hold the most significant promise to improve diets and equity, how behavioural nudges and communication strategies might further shift consumer choices, and what governance or market arrangements best enable large-scale change across highly variable food systems.This Research Topic aims to generate interdisciplinary knowledge on how economic levers and value chain policies in tandem with value chain development can enhance diet quality and nutrition, while addressing food safety, sustainability, and equity. It seeks to clarify which specific interventions, across production, processing, distribution, retail, and public procurement, deliver measurable improvements for vulnerable groups and populations experiencing the triple burden of malnutrition. The Research Topic encourages new analyses of policy instruments (e.g., taxes, subsidies, contract models), market trends, and multi-stakeholder pilot projects, and calls for research into the cost-effectiveness, distributional impacts, and the real-world scaling of best practices. Actionable insights for policymakers, donor organizations, and food systems actors are especially welcome, with attention to implementation and governance conditions that determine who benefits from innovation and reform.This Research Topic covers the intersection of economic policy, value chains, food environments, and diet quality, but does not encompass studies unrelated to value chain mechanisms or dietary outcomes. We welcome articles addressing, but not limited to, the following themes:o Market forces, pricing, and affordability: how prices, incomes, and competition across value chain stages shape diets and nutrition outcomeso Food system revolutions and food environments: supermarkets, midstream modernization (processing, cold chains, logistics), and fast-food/away-from-home consumptiono Contracts, coordination, and procurement: contract farming, vertical coordination, direct procurement, school feeding and other public procurement models, and impacts on nutrition and equityo Standards, labelling, reformulation, and regulation: effects on food composition, nutrient profiles, food safety, and consumer choiceo Dietary diversity, dietary transitions, and the triple burden: undernutrition, hidden hunger, obesity, and related inequalities across income, geography, and life stageo Value chains for nutrient-dense foods: fish and fish products, dairy, animal-sourced foods, and other perishable or safety-sensitive foodso Food safety and quality assurance: incentives and governance that affect contamination risk, compliance, and trust in marketso Food loss and waste (FLW): economic and policy pathways to reduce FLW, links to diet quality, and alignment with SDG 12.3o Behavioural pathways: nudges, behavioural change communication (BCC), and information interventions, especially in higher-income or highly commercialized food environmentso Cost-effectiveness, distributional impacts, and equity: who gains and who loses from taxes, subsidies, fortification, and procurement; impacts on vulnerable groupso Climate, energy, and sustainability linkages: how climate and energy policies interact with food value chains, impacting dietary shifts and nutrition-sensitive transitionso Donor programs, pilot projects, and scale-up: evidence on implementation, political economy, and institutional conditions for scaling best practices Topic editors: Chandra S Nuthalapati, Shalander Kumar, ABHISHEK DAS Source: https://www.frontiersin.org/research-topics/78261/value-chains-for-nutritious-and-sustainable-diets-economic-and-policy-levers-for-better-nutritional-outcomes