How to Increase Fruit and Vegetable Consumption: A Multistakeholder Approach for Improved Health Outcomes—A Report from the Alliance for Food & Health

ABSTRACT

Nutrition is the fundamental bridge between food and health. Inadequate fruit and vegetable (FV) consumption has been linked to an increase in global noncommunicable diseases, which places a greater burden on health systems (1). Despite much emphasis from the World Health Organization (WHO) and the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) on the benefits of increased FV consumption, neither results nor an understanding of the complexity of food security and the actions of a diverse array of stakeholders needed to achieve outcomes have been attained. To address this challenge, the Alliance for Food & Health (AFH) uses a multistakeholder approach to engage cross-sector solutions. This paper, the first in a series, addresses the global challenge of FV consumption by examining and synthesizing current practices and outcomes and providing actionable recommendations for government, private-sector, and civil-society stakeholders. To effectively reduce the global noncommunicable disease (NCD) burden, it is critical that stakeholders work in concordance with the WHO/FAO Second International Conference on Nutrition commitments (Table 1), United Nations (UN) Decade of Action on Nutrition Action Areas (Table 2), and the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) applicable to this issue (Table 3). AFH's top line recommendations (Table 4) align with multiple UN SDGs (2). All recommendations connect with the following three SDGs: #2: “Zero Hunger,” #3: “Good Health and Well-Being,” and #17: “Partnerships for the Goals.” This indicates AFH's integration of the food, agriculture, and global health communities in efforts to combat NCDs. A variety of recommendations align with #9: “Industry, Innovation, and Infrastructure,” #11: “Sustainable Cities and Communities,” and #12: “Responsible Consumption and Production.”

KEYWORDS:

• Multistakeholder
• food
• health
• noncommunicable disease
• chronic disease
• fruit
• vegetable

Disclosures

The analysis and dissemination of this report were not supported by any donors.

Acknowledgments

The Alliance for Food & Health (AFH) is a multistakeholder platform that brings together diverse stakeholders from both the public health community and the food and agriculture community to find innovative ways of addressing nutrition-related noncommunicable diseases (NCDs).

With more than 240 participants from academia, civil society, governments, international organizations, and the private sector, the AFH is creating a model that encourages cooperation and builds linkages to address critical health issues. Through stakeholder engagement, the AFH can generate actionable ideas to influence policy and propose interventions to inform the debate on food-related NCDs.

The AFH is grateful to the many people who shared their ideas, questions, and suggestions to assist in the development of multiple drafts and in the final production of this white paper. We are indebted in particular to more than 40 AFH participants who served on the White Paper #1 working group, members of the executive committee, those who provided written comments and edits on various drafts, and our discussion participants in Washington, DC, and New York, NY. Without them, this white paper would not be possible.

While the white paper's reference section indicates some of the depth of work that has gone into development of this paper, and of the AFH in general, the AFH's discussions and outreach to stakeholders is just beginning. The more voices that are involved in the AFH discussions, the stronger and more valuable its impact will be. It is critical that the AFH is aligned with thought leadership in this space. The AFH invites readers to join and contribute their voices to these discussions, outreach, and future white papers.

This document was prepared by Allen Rakotoniaina, MPH Candidate at the George Washington University Milken Institute School of Public Health in Washington, DC, USA.

For additional information concerning the AFH or this white paper, please contact Eric Trachtenberg, co-chair of the AFH, and Rebecca Hamel ( [email protected]), co-chair of the AFH.