Food Policy
Unhealthy diets contribute to approximately 11 million deaths each year. Vital Strategies partners with civil society organizations and supports governments to advance the fiscal policies, marketing restrictions and food standards that make healthy eating possible for everyone.
People reached with messaging about the harms of ultra-processed foods products in 2025.
Mass media campaigns launched to advance healthy food policies.
People have joined Kick Big Soda Out, a trailblazing global movement calling for an end to Big Soda’s sports sponsorships.
Healthy Food Policy Fellows trained to advance food systems change.
Why It Matters
Ultra-processed products—sweetened beverages, instant noodles, packaged snacks and other ready-to-eat or ready-to-heat foods—now dominate global diets, displacing traditional, nutritious foods and fueling soaring rates of obesity, Type 2 diabetes and heart disease.
Without action, these trends will only accelerate, hitting low- and middle-income countries hardest, where health systems have the least capacity to absorb rising costs.
How We Work
In partnership with civil society organizations, we support governments to advance the fiscal policies, marketing restrictions and food standards that make healthy diets achievable.
The Vital Strategies’ Food Policy Communication Program collaborates with partners across Latin America and the Caribbean, Africa and Asia to build healthier food environments. With unhealthy diets contributing to 11 million deaths and costing the global economy an estimated $8.1 trillion annually, the need for large-scale action has never been greater.
Strategic communication is at the heart of everything we do. Through audience research, campaigns and advocacy, we build public and policymakers’ support for evidence-based policies. These efforts advance proven interventions: taxes on sweetened beverages and ultra-processed products, front-of-package warning labels, restrictions on marketing unhealthy foods and beverages and stronger nutrition standards in the public sector, particularly in schools.
We also partner with civil society organizations to expose and counter food and beverage industry interference. And through the Healthy Food Policy Fellowship, we support the development of the next generation of researchers and legal advocates in the countries where we work.
Our work has contributed to measurable results—from Colombia’s 2022 tax on ultra-processed products and sweetened beverages to South Africa becoming the first Sub-Saharan African country to pass a sweetened beverage tax in 2018.
Areas of Focus
We focus on evidence-based policies and advocacy to improve food environments, reduce consumption of harmful products and lower risk of diet-related chronic disease.
Food Policy Hub
The Food Policy Hub website is a practical resource for governments, advocates and journalists, featuring case studies, evidence summaries and step-by-step guides to adopting proven healthy food policies.
