ReviewPublic health nutrition2025
University commitments to a sustainable food system: a content analysis of UK higher education institutions food sustainability policies.
Review in Public health nutrition, 2025. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 2 papers, 1 of them a synthesis that pooled it.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
2 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it.
- Higher education institutions and the use of marketing-mix choice architecture strategies to encourage plant-rich menu options and sustainable dietary patterns: a scoping review.Frontiers in nutrition · 2026Pooled it
- University commitments to a sustainable food system and lessons for the global south.Public health nutrition · 2025Article
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
4 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
objectiveThe food system is a major contributor to the global burden of disease, ecosystem destruction and climate change, posing considerable threats to human and planetary health and economic stability. Evidence-based food policy is fundamental to food system transformation at global, national and local or institutional levels. This study aimed to critically review the content of universities' food sustainability policy documents.
designA systematic search of higher education institutions' policies, using targeted websites and internet searches to identify food sustainability policy documents, was conducted between May and August 2023. A quantitative content analysis of the identified documents was conducted independently by multiple researchers using a coding template. Inconsistencies in coding were subsequently checked and amended through researcher consensus.
setting163 UK higher education institutions.
participantsN/A.
resultsApproximately 50 % of universities had a publicly available food sustainability policy. The most common food sustainability commitments therein were communication and engagement (95·2 %), food waste (94·0 %) and quality standards and certification (91·7 %). The scope of policy commitments varied between institutions; however, comprehensive documents included multifaceted commitments tackling more than one dimension of sustainability, for example, waste mitigation strategies that tackled food insecurity through food redistribution. Few (17·9 %) policies included a commitment towards research and innovation, suggesting university operations are considered in isolation from academic and educational activities.
conclusionsMultifaceted policy commitments are capable of uniting numerous food-related actions and institutional activities. As such, they are likely to support food system transformation, with broader positive outcomes for the university, students and the wider community.
Indexed as
Identifiers
What OpenQuestion holds
Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.