Eileen Alexander, Ghent University; Anu Seisto, VTT; Maarten Corten, Rikolto
The EIT Food SUCCESS project seeks to create lasting change in food consumption habits, with a particular focus on promoting the protein shift and reducing food waste.
The way we buy and consume food significantly impacts both our health and the environment (Willett et al., 2017). Research reveals that many consumers are willing to change their eating and shopping habits to reduce their ecological footprint, but sustaining such changes has proven to be difficult. This illustrates that achieving a sustainable food system requires more than individual behaviour changes (Evans and Welch, 2015). Supermarkets are uniquely positioned to influence this transition since they play a central role in food purchasing decisions. Acting as gatekeepers between diverse food producers and millions of consumers, they hold powerful levers to stimulate sustainable food consumption and make lasting change possible.
EIT Food SUCCESS
The EIT Food SUCCESS project seeks to create lasting change in food consumption habits, with a particular focus on promoting the protein shift and reducing food waste. It engages both consumers and retailers in three complementary ways: raising consumer awareness and knowledge of sustainable consumption, activating consumers by involving them in a discussion of the food environment to make sustainable choices easier and stimulating retailers to adjust their food environments to encourage consumers to make more sustainable purchases. To achieve these objectives, the project partners have implemented a range of impactful initiatives.
‘Shop&Cook’ workshops
The project organised ‘Shop&Cook’ workshops in real-life retail settings and training kitchens in Poland. Participants dove into hands-on activities, exploring how food environments shape their decisions. They also learned practical skills for cooking plant-based meals while reducing food waste. Many left the workshops with a new sense of confidence in making sustainable choices.
Consumer contribution platforms
In Belgium, consumers have been given a platform to voice their concerns and contribute ideas through awareness-raising workshops, citizen panels, and online discussions focused on sustainable food chains. These activities foster public engagement and provide valuable insights into how food environments can better align with consumer values. In addition, young European consumers were invited to discuss their role and need for support in the changing food system.
Knowledge-sharing database
SUCCESS also created an online database to accelerate the spread of best practices and insights from sustainable food initiatives from retailers. European consumers and retailers can use the platform to share innovative approaches and collaborate on new ideas. By highlighting successful initiatives, the database serves not only as a knowledge-sharing tool but also as a mechanism for driving industry-wide progress.
In-store behavioural experiments
Finally, behavioural experiments conducted in supermarkets in Belgium and Finland tested strategies to encourage consumers to choose more plant-based protein sources. Results from these interventions suggest that small changes in the shopping environment can positively influence consumer behaviour, leading to an increase in plant-based food purchases. Encouraged by these findings, some participating retailers have pledged to implement permanent changes in their stores, such as promoting default plant-based recipes to inspire their customers.
Toolkits providing actionable resources
To amplify its impact, SUCCESS developed comprehensive toolkits, publicly available on the project website, that translate the project’s insights into actionable resources. These toolkits provide consumers and retailers with practical guidance, evidence-based solutions and inspiring examples to create more sustainable food environments. By sharing these tools, SUCCESS ensures its achievements can ripple outward, empowering more people and businesses to contribute to a healthier, more sustainable future.
Collaborative strategies for sustainable retail
The project’s outcomes did not come without some hurdles. Engaging retailers was a significant challenge for SUCCESS, as many need to balance short-term business priorities with long-term sustainability goals. To address this, the project fostered trust through collaborative roundtable discussions highlighting the long-term benefits of transforming shopping environments. This pre-competitive setting allowed retailers to share ideas, align on common goals and explore strategies to transform their supermarkets into more sustainable spaces. By creating spaces for open discussion, the project encouraged retailers to see sustainability not as a trade-off but as a valuable opportunity for growth and consumer engagement. Encouragingly, these discussions will continue beyond the project, creating a learning network to drive sustainable retail practices collectively.
Advancing more sustainable food systems requires further support for initiatives like those undertaken by the SUCCESS project through targeted research and policies. Future efforts should prioritise developing tools to measure the impact of retailers’ practices on consumer behaviour, environmental outcomes and economic sustainability. Such tools would provide reliable metrics for assessing how supermarkets—and other food actors—drive change in consumption habits, such as shifting protein consumption patterns and reducing food waste.
Equally important is exploring methods to involve consumers as active stakeholders in the food system. Participatory approaches that co-create value-driven solutions can reflect consumer priorities, build trust and ensure equitable food environments. Empowering consumers to shape food systems while aligning retail practices with societal values is essential for meaningful progress.
Conclusion
There is no silver bullet to redesign the current food system. The interplay of stakeholders across diverse food chains, spanning across varied public and political contexts, calls for a multitude of approaches.
The SUCCESS project exemplifies this complexity, offering strategies that address sustainability on multiple fronts while engaging different stakeholders. Rather than seeking a single solution, the project demonstrates how diverse, value-driven approaches can collectively drive change.
A shared commitment to core values is crucial to uniting stakeholders and fostering collaboration. Identifying these values must include consumers as active participants in the process.
References
Evans, D. and Welch, D. (2015 Food Waste Transitions: Consumption, Retail and Collaboration towards a Sustainable Food System. University of Manchester, Sustainable Consumption Institute.
Willett, W., Rockström, J., Loken, B., Springmann, M., Lang, T., Vermeulen, S., Garnett, T., Tilman, D., DeClerck, F., Wood, A., Jonell, M., Clark, M., Gordon, L.J., Fanzo, J., Hawkes, C., Zurayk, R., Rivera, J.A., De Vries, W., Majele Sibanda, L., Afshin, A., Chaudhary, A., Herrero, M., Agustina, R., Branca, F., Lartey, A., Fan, S., Crona, B., Fox, E., Bignet, V., Troell, M., Lindahl, T., Singh, S., Cornell, S.E., Reddy, K.S., Narain, S., Nishtar, S. and Murray, C.J.L., (2019) ‘Food in the Anthropocene: the EAT-Lancet Commission on healthy diets from sustainable food systems’, The Lancet, 393(10170), pp. 447–492. doi: 10.1016/S0140-6736(18)31788-4.
PROJECT SUMMARY
The EIT Food ‘SUCCESS’ project examines how supermarkets and consumers in Belgium, Finland and Poland collaborate to drive sustainable food practices. By engaging consumers and retailers alike through three interconnected strategies, the project aims to shift food (shopping) behaviour and reduce the environmental and social impact of the food system.
PROJECT PARTNERS
The SUCCESS project is a collaboration between research institutions from Belgium (University of Ghent) and Finland (VTT, Technical Research Centre of Finland) and non-profit organisations from Poland (Food Bank in Olsztyn) and Belgium (EUFIC and Rikolto).
PROJECT LEAD
The project is headed by Sarah Braeye of Rikolto. Rikolto is an international organisation that sets up global collaborations between citizens, farmers, businesses, knowledge institutions and governments to make food systems equitable, more transparent and more environmentally friendly. For Rikolto Belgium, Sarah coordinates all projects related to supermarkets’ role in a more sustainable food system.
PROJECT CONTACT
Sarah Braeye (Rikolto), Project Lead
Email: sarah.braeye@rikolto.org
Web: https://www.eitfood.eu/projects/success-for-making-sustainable-consumption-mainstream
EUFIC food facts for health choices
This article is part of the collaboration between EUFIC and the PRj, as members of its editorial board. EUFIC – The European Food Information Council is a non-profit organisation established in 1995. EUFIC’s mission is to provide engaging science-based information to inspire and empower healthier and more sustainable food and lifestyle choices.