A tool to enhance citizens’ knowledge and actionability for healthy and sustainable food habits: the SWITCH Food Explorer

Adoption of healthy and sustainable dietary systems presents significant societal challenges due to many barriers, including limited background education, information overload that generates confusion and distrust, and the lack of accessible science-based tools to support food literacy and actionability. To address these challenges, we developed the SWITCH Food Explorer platform, a free and intuitive online tool available in seven languages, which allows users to explore the environmental impacts and nutritional properties of food commodities and to combine them into recipes and dietary plans. The platform targets consumers as well as scientists and food-system actors, including chefs, canteen managers and healthcare providers. It relies on a newly compiled database of health and sustainability indicators , carbon footprint (CF), water footprint (WF), and a blue food index (BFI), for fish and shellfish, derived, respectively, from 6,065 primary CF studies, 1,298 WF data points and 4,035 fisheries and aquaculture sustainability records summarized in 20 food groups, 37 sub-groups and 400 food items. For each item, 9 nutritional indicators and health and sustainability recommendations are also provided based on EU national dietary guidelines and food composition tables. A science-based framework is used to attribute sustainability scores to food items, recipes and meals, translating complex data into a user-friendly and open-access web application. The preliminary test of the SWITCH Food Explorer in real case studies demonstrates strong early-stage adoption and meaningful user engagement, providing a solid foundation for future scaling and longitudinal impact assessment once the final version is launched for wide-scale adoption.