The provision of safe, nutritious, high quality and affordable food to Europe's consumers is the central objective of EU policy, which covers all stages of the EU food supply chain, "from farm to fork". Its standards and requirements aim to ensure a high level of food safety and nutrition within an efficient, competitive, sustainable and innovative global market.
However, a series of emerging challenges and risks could put the currently successful European food system under severe stress. These challenges include demographic imbalances, climate change, resource and energy scarcity, slowing agricultural productivity, increasing concentration of the supply chain, price volatility, changing diet trends and the emergence of anti-microbial resistant strands.
Foresight analysis on "Delivering on EU Food Safety and Nutrition in 2050 - Scenarios of future change and policy responses" is a first step of the Commission's Foresight Project for future food policy development.
The project aims to provide insight and guidance for future policy-making and the research which underpins EU policy in this area by identifying the:
- critical challenges to EU food legislative framework;
- future evolution of the challenges (in years 2020, 2030 and 2050);
- impacts of current challenges on EU’s food legislative framework;
- potential critical changes in the current framework necessary to maintain the prevailing high standards.
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