The Belgian Food Council for Prevention aims to empower citizens to make healthier food choices that are more accessible, practical, and enjoyable for everyone.
This imperative calls for new ways to reinforce the key role of nutrition in preventing health disorders. Moving from cure to care is essential to help reverse the trend of upwardly spiralling healthcare costs and reduce the number of people requiring treatment.
Belgium's nutrition in numbers:
49% of Belgians are overweight, including 18% who are obese¹
13% of individuals aged 10-64 are suspected of having an eating disorder²
29% of adults aged 65+ are at risk of malnutrition³
1 in 7 adolescents are overweight or obese⁴
€1.85-3 billion is spent on healthcare for weight issues annually⁵
Consequently, health expenditure has risen sharply in Belgium which has seen healthcare costs increase from 6% of GDP in 1983 to almost 11% in in 2022⁶.
- The Belgian Food Council for Prevention
- Engage: making the healthy choice, the easy and enjoyable choice
- Change: empowering all citizens in their food choices
- Nudge: building lifelong food skills and nutritional awareness
- Unite: aligning stakeholders for measurable impact
The Belgian Food Council for Prevention
As all stakeholders need to work together to drive a collective approach, the Council brings together different experts and stakeholders from across the food ecosystem—from academics, cardiologists, nutritionists, and insurance leaders to public health officials—to collaborate on concrete, real-world actions divided into 4 categories: engage, change, nudge, and unite.
Engage: making the healthy choice, the easy and enjoyable choice
Find ways for stakeholders to engage with society so that nutritious, safe, and sustainable food options become the norm for everyone. By boosting healthy product offerings and overcoming constraints, nutritious food will become accessible, inclusive, and enjoyable for all citizens.
Change: empowering all citizens in their food choices
Provide clear nutritional information across all platforms to help citizens make informed decisions and foster environments that support healthier lifestyles in communities, institutions, and workplaces, particularly for young people who stand to gain lifelong healthy dietary habits.
Nudge: building lifelong food skills and nutritional awareness
Prioritise nutrition education in schools, workplaces, and communities, linking it to practical skills like cooking and budgeting. Since healthy behaviours are formed early and take time to develop, every opportunity should be seized to support better nutrition.
Unite: aligning stakeholders for measurable impact
Bring public authorities, health experts, NGOs, and industry together around shared prevention goals, data sharing, and transparent monitoring of health and nutrition outcomes, which is critical to acting and moving forward.
Food Council for Prevention
Download the whitepaper to discover the expert calls to action to leverage nutrition and improve public health.
The Belgian Food Council for Prevention
The whitepaper is based on the discussion from the Belgian Food Council's first meeting which took place on 9 December 2025. Participants represented a wide variety of stakeholders from the industry.
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