HEALTHY, SUSTAINABLE DIETS: SUPPLY & DEMAND DECODED
In the race to create a food system that nourishes both people and planet, food businesses face a fundamental tension: how to align the supply with the demand so that together they drive us forwards. Healthy and sustainable diet (HSD) strategies are no longer just an ambition; they are an imperative for every food business to ensure a food system fit for the future. Yet, the journey is anything but simple.
Today, many consumers believe sustainable food as healthier and better for the planet, with 35% associating it with better nutrition and 55% linking it to protecting the environment (Sodexo Sustainable Food Barometer 2025). But belief doesn’t always equal behaviour. Nearly three quarters (74%) of consumers still prioritise taste over sustainability when choosing what to eat (Sodexo Sustainable Food Barometer 2025). And in 2024, food brands poured an extra £420 million into advertising high fat, salt and sugar (HFSS) products – leading to an extra 45 million packets of snacks being sold (The Observer recently reported).
This tells us something powerful about the dynamics of supply and demand: demand is shaped, not static. And supply doesn’t just respond, it drives. If we are to deliver healthy and sustainable food for all, we need to understand these two forces not as separate, but as interlinked, co-creative parts of the food system.
Food businesses stand at the intersection of this challenge. On the supply side, the levers are increasingly clear: from reformulating portfolios to embedding sustainability across the supply chain; from building governance and board-level accountability, to using risk and resilience frameworks like TCFD to prepare for disruption. These actions are not just good ethics, they’re smart business. They build trust, mitigate long-term risks and open new market opportunities.
Meanwhile, on the demand side, influence can be wielded through marketing, product design, pricing and availability. Brands that embrace transparency, harness consumer motivations for health, and make sustainable food more visible, affordable and convenient are already shifting behaviours. Yet more can be done. Culture and social norms – often overlooked – are critical. What people eat is deeply tied to identity, habit and belonging. Shifting norms means telling new stories, with new heroes, in new places.
This Veris Strategies graphic helps make sense of this shifting supply and demand landscape. It highlights the most important levers and drivers, as well as the enablers that connect them – skills; partnership; influence; finance; policy and technology. It also reflects the feedback loops and interdependencies that ripple throughout, influencing every part of the system.
Yes, the barriers are real. But so are the opportunities. If every part of the system activates the levers at its disposal, the transformation to delivering healthy and sustainable food for all will be in reach.
HSD Supply & Demand Graphic, powered by Veris Strategies
Use this: Download the above decoder graphic and use it within your business to help drive conversation, create clarity and influence decision making.
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