OnFoods addressed the challenge of food sustainability starting from a clear premise: without shared measurement tools, sustainability remains an abstract goal. For this reason, the project worked to make it assessable, operational and translatable into public policy, defining key objectives—equity, efficiency, accessibility and waste reduction—and building around them results that can already be used by institutions and decision-makers at different levels.

One important outcome was the definition of verifiable criteria for sustainability through a structured framework of indices and metrics applicable to both long and short supply chains. Alongside this, a reporting tool was developed for agri-food SMEs, conceived as a practical support instrument to monitor progress, compare production alternatives and guide investments and decisions along the value chain in a more transparent and informed way.

Among the most innovative elements is the application of local multipliers to short supply chains. This methodology makes it possible to estimate how much of the economic value generated by food remains within the local territory and how much is absorbed by external circuits. In terms of public policy, this provides a solid empirical basis for designing and justifying interventions that support short supply chains, farmers’ markets and local networks of production and distribution, also from the perspective of social inclusion and economic resilience.

Alongside economic and environmental metrics, OnFoods has developed tools to analyse and strengthen the governance of food systems. The Food System Governance Matrix, built on the basis of 16 European case studies, makes it possible to classify and compare governance models according to territorial scale and sustainability objectives, offering a shared language between researchers and public decision-makers.

• Corubolo, M., De Sainz Molestina, D., Meroni, A., and Viganego Ballesteros, L. (2024) Urban and peri-urban food systems: exploring proximity and care in alternative food networks, in Gray, C., Ciliotta Chehade, E., Hekkert, P., Forlano, L., Ciuccarelli, P., Lloyd, P. (eds.), DRS2024: Boston, 23–28 June, Boston, USA. https://doi.org/10.21606/drs.2024.887

Within the same framework, the project supported the creation of the Parma Bio Valley biodistrict, allowing methodologies to be tested in practice that are now brought together in a genuine “toolbox” for agri-food living labs. This instrument is particularly useful when policies aim to activate social innovation and coordination among heterogeneous actors, and it can be easily transferred to contexts with similar characteristics.

Another cross-cutting objective of the project was to make sustainable diets accessible, avoiding the risk that they remain a choice available only to a limited group. In this perspective, collective catering represents a strategic lever, because it intersects daily with public policies, food provision and individual behaviours.

Building on the experience of OnFoods and seven pilot food procurement projects carried out on university campuses—focused on nutritional quality, local supply chains and waste reduction—a document of strong public relevance was produced: the Guidelines for Universities Food Policies.

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The document proposes a model for university food policy structured around vision, values, priorities and concrete actions, translating objectives into operational choices: nutritional requirements in procurement calls and contracts, training and monitoring of suppliers, promotion of seasonal, local and more plant-based menus, attention to cultural inclusivity and allergens, recovery and redistribution of food surpluses, and the design of spaces and services that encourage healthier and more sustainable food environments. The framework is designed to be scalable and adaptable also to schools, hospitals and other public catering contexts.

Equally scalable and transferable are the guidelines developed for retail environments, based on measurement and monitoring systems, choice architecture strategies to improve food choices and reduce waste, in-store experiments and analyses of communication practices, health perception and the behavioural drivers influencing consumer decisions.

Finally, OnFoods has produced comparative analyses of food safety policies and crisis management, studies on the legal and economic determinants of public decision-making, and system-level tools—such as databases for the analysis of food policies—accompanied by participatory processes with stakeholders aimed at defining priorities and recommendations.