The Impact of Education on Consumer Food Choices

The course "The Impact of Education on Consumer Food Choices" will have as its main objective that of providing students with the correct information to guide the consumer to make informed choices through the correct reading of food labeling, in particular by differentiating the types of Front-of-pack (FOP) and how they can help consumers make more informed and healthy choices; food education as a tool for improving food knowledge to guide food choices; nutritional counseling to help the consumer understand which tools to use to reach more informed choices; culinary medicine as an evidence-based approach that includes nutritional education and instructions on kitchen skills, including shopping, meal planning and preparation and food storage; finally the psychology of food consumption to better understand how attitudes are formed in the choices of food products.
 
The course program will be taught by top experts in the subject:
 

• 04/28/2025 2-6 pm online lesson on the topic of “Psychology of food consumption” conducted by Dr. Simone Mattavelli (Researcher at the University of Milan Bicocca).
• 05/05/2025 9-13 am online lesson on the topic “Food labeling: how it can help the consumer” conducted by Prof. Daniela Martini (Associate Professor at the University of Milan). 
• 12/05/2025 9am-1pm online lesson on the topic “Effective Nutrition Education Interventions” conducted by Dr. Monica Guglielmetti (Research Fellow at the University of Pavia).
• 19/05/2025 9am-1pm online lesson on the topic “Nutritional counseling as a communication tool” conducted by Dr. Emanuela Oliveri (Dietician expert in systemic nutritional counseling)
• 26/05/205 9am-1pm online lesson on the topic “Culinary medicine: a new evidence-based approach to nutrition. A resource for professionals and consumers” conducted by Dr. Daniele Nucci (Dietician of ATS Brescia)

The course is organized as part of the NODES Spoke 7 project whose mission is to increase the competitiveness of the local food system in terms of safety, quality and added value of food products, through digitalization, circularity, sustainability of the supply chain, growth of the skills of operators in the sector and the creation of new and innovative entrepreneurship.

The course also takes into account the vision of Spoke 7 which calls for the improvement of the food production system that would maximize the positive impact on society, developing new models of consumption and sustainable lifestyles, as well as promoting new communication models aimed at informing and educating consumers about food production sustainable.

For these reasons, organizing a course on the importance of education to improve consumer food choices would be perfectly addressed to the objectives of the Ecosystem and SPOKE 7.

The course will be aimed at everyone, including professionals in the food sector, students (undergraduate, graduate, master's, doctorates and specialization schools), experts in human nutrition and clinical nutrition. This is because it is essential to inform industry experts about the choices to be made to direct production, packaging and promotion of new products in line with the latest evidence on the topic of communication in the nutritional field, but also to educate consumers to make more balanced and sustainable food choices.