The new report confirms that global food systems sit squarely at the nexus of human health, environmental sustainability, social justice, and national resilience.
And it says that the decisions public sector providers make on procurement, menu design, and waste management are not just operational matters—they are crucial levers for meeting public health targets, delivering on carbon reduction pledges, and ensuring social equity.
At the heart of the Commission’s recommendations is the Planetary Health Diet (PHD). This, it claims, is the future of mandatory nutritional standards - a science-backed framework designed to deliver optimal health while operating within the Earth’s environmental limits.
It makes clear that a healthy diet is predominantly plant-based, with only a moderate inclusion of animal-sourced foods and minimal amounts of added sugars, saturated fats, and salt.
For schools aiming to tackle childhood obesity, for hospitals focused on patient recovery, and for care homes prioritising the well-being of the elderly, the Commission says the PHD is the ‘gold standard’. The updated evidence shows a strong association with dramatically improved health outcomes, a substantial decline in major diet-related chronic diseases, and large reductions in all-cause mortality.
The good thing is that the PHD is designed to offer the flexibility needed to cater for all age ranges, dietary needs, and cultural choices based on clear, science-based values.
Environmental Stewardship: The Procurement Imperative
The Commission makes clear that current food systems are the single largest cause of planetary boundary transgressions, driving the breach of five out of six boundaries currently exceeded.
For public sector procurement, it says this means caterers needing to move beyond standard price checks to a scrutiny of environmental integrity. The key points for supply chains are:
• Your contracts must favour suppliers with robust, auditable commitments to protecting biodiversity due to unsustainable land practices like deforestation.
• Actively seek suppliers who use circular nutrient systems and efficient, sustainable farming practices, often referred to as ecological intensification. This is because food systems are almost entirely responsible for breaching the boundaries for nitrogen and phosphorous loading.
• Your buying power is crucial in demanding transparency and driving a shift towards safer, cleaner food production to reduce the ‘understudied use of novel entities’ such as certain pesticides and plastics in processing and packaging.
The Commission Report says that committing to these environmental demands isn’t just a green initiative; it’s building resilience into your supply chain, protecting it from future climate shocks and resource scarcity.
One of the additions to the updated Commission is the focus on social justice. It proposes nine social foundations that must be met, highlighting three especially:
Access and Affordability of Healthy Diets: Core to the public sector, the report says caterers have a responsibility to ensure that healthy, high-quality food is the default option and remains affordable for everyone, regardless of their socio-economic status.
A Non-Toxic Environment and a Stable Climate: This extends to the health and safety of your own staff and the communities near your supply sources.
A Living Wage and Meaningful Representation: Public money should only support businesses that guarantee a living wage and decent work conditions for everyone in the food chain, from the field to your kitchen.
The data shows that nearly half of the world’s population falls below these social foundations. The report says that by demanding ethical sourcing and fair labour practices, public sector catering leaders can use their combined purchasing power to help create a fairer, more equitable food system.
However, the Commission’s modelling suggests that even with the most ambitious transformations - a global shift to the PHD, massive reductions in food loss and waste, and vastly improved agricultural productivity - the world would only just manages to return to safe limits for freshwater and climate change. The nitrogen and phosphorous boundaries would remain breached.
That is why the Eat-Lancet Commission’s message is that transformation requires ‘urgent, meaningful changes in our collective behaviours because incremental change is not enough’.
It says that caterers must embrace a strategy of radical efficiency and innovation that will require rapidly transitioning menus to culturally appropriate, tasty, budget-friendly, plant-based proteins and reducing dependency on resource-intensive animal products.
It also requires implementing systems to measure, track, and virtually eliminate food loss and waste across preparation and service.
And, finally, it needs caterers to use their procurement process to demand ‘ecological intensification’. That means suppliers who sequester carbon, reduce water footprints, and recycle nutrients.
It concludes: “Food is not just fuel; it is a profound determinant of health, a driver of climate impact, and a fundamental pillar of social justice.”
It urges catering leaders to use their role to build the healthy, sustainable, and just food systems for the people they serve.
Eight actions towards a better food system
The updated 2025 Eat-Lancet Commission Report on healthy, sustainable, and just food systems proposes eight priority solutions. Each one to be accompanied by specific actions and policy measures:
1. Create food environments to increase demand for healthy diets, ensuring they are more accessible and affordable
2. Protect and promote healthy traditional diets
3. Implement sustainable and ecological intensification practices
4. Apply strong regulations to prevent loss of remaining intact ecosystems
5. Improve infrastructure, management, and consumer behaviour change to reduce food loss and waste
6. Secure decent working conditions
7. Ensure meaningful representation for all
8. Recognise and protect marginalised groups