Population-level interventions for sustainable food consumption

Population-level interventions are directed at an entire population, in contrast to individual-level interventions, which target selected groups (e.g., skills training programs directed towards high-risk individuals). As they are delivered across whole populations—or population groups—they can have considerably more reach than individual-level interventions. As everyone in a population stands to benefit from the intervention, population interventions have the potential to be more equitable than individual-level interventions. We discuss some of the approaches that can be used to conceptualize population-level interventions: the Nuffield intervention ladder, the COM-B model, analysis grid for environments linked to obesity, and typology of interventions in physical proximal microenvironments (TIPPME) frameworks. We then move onto discussing the evidence base of different population-level interventions for reducing meat consumption and shifting to more plant-based diets.