Unhealthy food environments make it harder for people to make healthy choices.

What are food environments?

Food environments are the contexts in which people make decisions about buying, preparing and eating food. For example, the grocery store or food stall is part of the food environment, as are food and beverage advertisements on television or digital platforms and brand sponsorship of sports teams.

Why have food environments become unhealthy and unsustainable?

Food systems produce enough food for everyone, but access has become deeply unequal and unsustainable.

Corporate control is reshaping what people eat. A handful of multinational companies—mostly headquartered in high-income countries—now largely control what foods are produced, supplied and consumed globally. These corporations have the financial power to infiltrate local markets, shifting agricultural patterns and diets. Traditional crops are being replaced with those used for unhealthy, low-nutrient products (see Box 1: What are ultra-processed products?), constraining what farmers can grow and how communities use their land.

This pushes consumers toward harmful choices. Cheap, convenient, appealingly marketed products high in salt, sugar and saturated fat that are often ultra-processed—but lacking essential nutrients—are now everywhere. The mass production of these products also harms the environment, making food systems less sustainable and less resilient to climate change.

Why does it matter?

Food fuels the body, but billions lack access to nutritious options. This leads to hunger, malnutrition and diet-related chronic diseases that diminish well-being, health and productivity. Access to a healthy diet remains deeply unequal within and across countries.

The problem is worsening. The shift toward ultra-processed products—combined with economic inequality, the climate crisis and conflict—has made healthy diets increasingly unaffordable and out of reach. As a result, malnutrition, hunger and food insecurity continue to rise in many places around the world.

The world faces a “triple burden of malnutrition.” Undernutrition, overnutrition and micronutrient deficiencies are occurring simultaneously. While progress has been made in reducing undernutrition, obesity rates have soared. Obesity has now surpassed underweight as the most common form of malnutrition among school-aged children and adolescents worldwide.

The health toll is staggering. These dietary shifts have driven alarmingly high rates of cardiovascular disease, Type 2 diabetes and some cancers. Poor diet is linked to 11 million premature deaths each year—making it a leading risk factor for noncommunicable diseases.

The environment is also paying the price. The production and consumption of unhealthy packaged products degrades the environment through greenhouse gas emissions, plastic waste, pollution, excessive water and land use, and loss of agricultural biodiversity.