Target 2030 - Food and Nutrition Policy: From Human to Planetary Health: An Overview of the NNEdPro 11th International Summit 2025

Sarah Anderson
11 hours ago
7 min read

Authors: Priyanka Kotak, Gerald Cheruiyot, Ramya Rajaram, Sarah Armes

Reviewed and edited by: Sumantra (Shumone) Ray and Sarah Anderson

The 11th International Summit on Food, Nutrition & Health was held from 10th to 13th December 2025 in Dundee and St Andrews, Scotland, convening a global, interdisciplinary community in both in-person and hybrid formats. Aligned with the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals, the theme, Target 2030: Food and Nutrition Policy - From Human to Planetary Health, adopted a dual focus on human and planetary health, recognising these as fundamentally interconnected.

The programme was underpinned by the understanding that food and nutrition act as an umbrella for a wide range of domains, including climate health, behavioural economics, and culinary education. The Summit built on and expanded the themes explored across satellite events held throughout 2025 in Kuala Lumpur, Nairobi, Bern, Ulster, and Belém, covering topics including precision nutrition, behavioural economics, and sustainability.

Reflecting this breadth, the Summit spanned over 30 hours of content across multiple mini symposia and featured contributions from more than 60 speakers. Discussions aimed to identify policy-sensitive, context-specific solutions that advance progress towards the 2030 Sustainable Development Goals, while also addressing the global double burden of malnutrition, bringing regional expertise and perspectives into a shared global dialogue.

The Summit programme also extended beyond the main symposia to include dedicated academic and youth-focused activities held on the final day. These included a complementary abstract and poster competition, delivered in collaboration with BMJ Nutrition, Prevention & Health, alongside the Global Youth Essay Competition. Together, these initiatives provided platforms for both early-career researchers and emerging global youth voices to contribute to policy-relevant dialogue on food, nutrition, and planetary health.

DAY 1: 10th December - Half-Day Symposium | James Hutton Institute

The day's programme began at the James Hutton Institute, with registration an hour earlier to allow delegates early access to the auditorium and informal networking ahead of the opening sessions. The opening Plenary on Democratising and Decolonising Nutrition reflected on progress since 2024 and highlighted the importance of culturally informed, equity-driven approaches to shaping nutrition policy towards 2030.

A key session, A Tale of Three Islands, showcased how context shapes policy and practice, with insights from New Zealand on cultural competency in health education, Iceland on integrating planetary health into national dietary approaches, and Malta on the role of localisation, food culture and innovation in improving population health.

The programme also featured a Mini Symposium in partnership with Shiv Nadar University, emphasising culinary education, indigenous knowledge and community engagement as practical tools for strengthening nutrition outcomes.

Discussions concluded with the Policy Panel on Nutrition Knowhow for All, which underscored the need for clear, accessible, evidence-based guidance and coordinated cross-sector action to improve public nutrition literacy.

The day closed with a welcome from the Scottish Alliance for Food (SCAF) and an Opening Reception at the James Hutton Institute, supported by Busara, fostering collaboration and exchange among participants. Together, these sessions set the cultural, equity and policy foundations for advancing food and nutrition systems towards Target 2030.

DAY 2: 11th December - Human Health Focus | Dundee Science Centre

Moving to the Dundee Science Centre, Day Two began with opening remarks that outlined the objectives of the Human Health focus, reinforcing the importance of integrated approaches that connect food systems, nutrition science, equity, and population health.

The first Mini Symposium of the day, From Bern to Belém and Beyond, offered a global lens through reflections from Pre-Summit satellite events across Europe, Africa, Asia, and Latin America. Discussions highlighted how local context shapes food and nutrition priorities, from behavioural approaches to food access in Nairobi, to culinary education and cultural translation of nutrition science in Bern and Biel. Insights from Kuala Lumpur emphasised systems-based approaches to noncommunicable disease prevention in ASEAN contexts, while reflections from Ulster explored advances in precision nutrition and their implications for clinical practice and equity. The session concluded with perspectives from India, outlining plans to extend the Summit’s momentum into sustained, evidence-informed policy engagement.

Attention then turned to food security, equity, and affordability, with Mini Symposium 3 examining how gender, food systems, and everyday food environments shape nutrition outcomes. Presentations drew attention to the ongoing nutrition gaps faced by women of reproductive age, highlighting the importance of linking nutrition support more closely with sexual and reproductive health services across the life course. Conversations then turned to protein transitions in food-insecure settings, where speakers reflected on the real-world challenge of balancing sustainability with affordability and cultural acceptability, particularly in low-resource and crisis contexts.

Building on this, Mini Symposium 4 focused on nutrition awareness, education, and behaviour change, highlighting how knowledge translates into action only when it meets people where they are. Speakers shared practical, community-embedded approaches from health kiosks in markets and conversations in hairdressing salons, to hands-on culinary education and school-linked learning, showing how everyday spaces can become sites for prevention and empowerment.

The focus then shifted from population-wide strategies to more targeted interventions in Mini Symposium 5, titled "Population Health to Precision Nutrition Interventions." Speakers addressed debates around dietary recommendations for hypertension and kidney disease, population strategies for scalable impact in low-resource settings, and emerging tools such as nutrition research registries and precision approaches using bioactive compounds. The session highlighted both the promise and the practical challenges of applying precision nutrition, while keeping equity and population relevance firmly in view.

The final Mini Symposium of the day focused on the intersection of science, innovation, and policy in shaping sustainable nutrition and health outcomes. Speakers explored how evidence can be translated into action, from responding to the double burden of malnutrition to aligning national priorities with global frameworks and advancing plant-forward, climate-resilient dietary approaches.

A collective summary and reflection session drew together insights from across the day, reinforcing the central message that human health must remain the anchor for food and nutrition policy as the Summit progressed. The programme then transitioned into the Gala Dinner and Confluence, where shared meals, cultural performances, and community engagement offered a living expression of the Summit’s values: connection, collaboration, and the integration of knowledge into practice.

DAY 3: 12th December - Human and Planetary Health Focus | Dundee Science Centre

Opening remarks set out the need for integrated approaches that align nutrition science, public health, environmental sustainability, and food systems governance. This was developed through discussion of EU food law, which highlighted the evolving regulatory landscape and the challenge of balancing food safety, food security, and sustainability amid climate pressures, geopolitical uncertainty, and shifting dietary patterns.

The first mini symposium, supported by HEIGHTS, addressed transparency, education, and collaboration between industry and healthcare professionals, a topic of increasing relevance as nutrition science becomes more complex and commercially engaged. Presentations explored how structured and ethically governed industry–academic partnerships can support innovation while maintaining scientific integrity and public trust. Evidence on healthcare professionals’ knowledge, attitudes, and practices regarding nutrition and supplementation underscored the need for targeted, evidence-based educational resources and clearer frameworks for engagement. Collectively, these sessions reinforced the importance of structured collaboration to translate research into practice without compromising professional independence.

Sessions delivered with the University of Parma and the ONFOODS Consortium focused on population-specific and life-course approaches to healthy and sustainable diets. Case studies demonstrated how locally embedded initiatives, spanning childhood nutrition, university food environments, pregnancy-specific dietary guidance, and diet optimisation strategies, can simultaneously support health outcomes and environmental goals. These examples demonstrated the value of locally embedded, context-sensitive interventions grounded in scientific evidence and cultural relevance.

The focus then shifted to precision nutrition and data science, highlighting advances in personalised approaches to cardiometabolic and cognitive health. Speakers explored the application of risk prediction models, dietary pattern analysis, and artificial intelligence, including large language models, to improve cardiometabolic health outcomes. Discussions also acknowledged the practical and ethical issues related to data use, governance, and equity as these approaches are increasingly applied in research and practice.

Afternoon sessions explored sustainable food systems and climate action, focusing on the economic and social implications of dietary change. Topics included the potential of climate finance, carbon markets, and agri-food innovation to support more equitable and resilient food systems, particularly in low- and middle-income contexts. The role of locally adapted crops and nutrient-dense food systems was highlighted as central to addressing both environmental sustainability and the rising burden of noncommunicable diseases.

The final mini symposium underscored the importance of traditional and indigenous crops and knowledge systems in strengthening food security and dietary diversity. Presentations on millets, halophytes, and seasonal food systems highlighted their potential contribution to sustainable diets, biodiversity, and local economies. The closing keynote drew these strands together, proposing a pathway toward healthy and sustainable diets that deliver concurrent benefits for human health, environmental protection, social equity, and economic resilience.

DAY 4: 13th December – Abstracts and Global Youth Engagement | St Leonards School

The final day of the Summit was dedicated to research dissemination and youth engagement, reinforcing NNEdPro’s commitment to capacity building, inclusivity, and the next generation of global nutrition leaders.

This included the abstract and poster competition, delivered in collaboration with BMJ Nutrition, Prevention & Health, alongside the Global Youth Essay Competition. Together, these activities provided platforms for emerging researchers and young people to contribute to policy-relevant dialogue on food, nutrition, and planetary health.

A detailed overview of both initiatives is available in a separate companion blog.

A Post-Summit Satellite Event was held at the University of St Andrews on the afternoon of 13 December, coinciding with the official launch of the Global Nutrition, Outcomes and Metrics Exchange (GNOME).

CONCLUSION

The 11th International Summit went beyond a conventional scientific “conference”, bringing together a comprehensive array of people working across the broad landscape of nutrition, including researchers, practitioners, and educators. The event created a space for shared learning and consensus-building on actionable strategies for food, nutrition, and health systems. Most significantly, it emphasised that while nutrition science is essential, it is food itself that is at the heart of improving human and planetary health.

For the first time at a NNEdPro Summit, chefs were championed, highlighting their vital role in shaping what people eat and creating environments that support healthier, more sustainable choices. The Summit incorporated a culinary masterclass and a Tartan Gala Dinner, cooked by the East of Scotland Mobile Teaching Kitchen champions, which integrated nutrition science with Scottish culture and heritage. Both provided tangible demonstrations of how the ideas about cultural connection and community engagement discussed throughout the Summit can be translated into practice, and how hands-on, practice-oriented approaches complement traditional evidence translation.

Participants and speakers collectively explored actionable pathways towards Target 2030, reinforcing that meaningful progress relies on collaboration, consensus-building, and a commitment to translating dialogue into policy and practice. The connections and insights generated in Dundee offer a shared foundation for continued global action, supporting healthier, more sustainable, and equitable food systems for people and the planet. The Summit also provided a window into how the global food and nutrition landscape is evolving, offering insights that will help shape the 12th International Summit: Human Intelligence, Artificial Intelligence, and Global Challenges.