PAN International Joins European Health and Civil Society Organisations Calling for Comprehensive Action on Unhealthy Diets in a Forthcoming Study on Ultra-Processed Foods
PAN International has co-authored and signed a joint letter to the European Commission calling for urgent and comprehensive policy action on unhealthy ultra-processed foods (UPFs), diets and food environments across Europe.
Photo by Richard R / Unsplash
The letter, addressed to Commissioner Olivér Várhelyi, brings together 20 organisations representing civil society, health associations and medical professionals. It responds to the European Commission’s forthcoming study on ultra-processed foods, announced as part of the EU Safe Hearts Plan.
While PAN welcomes the Commission’s planned study, the joint letter urges policymakers not to delay action on what is already clear: unhealthy diets are contributing to a major burden of non-communicable diseases, including cardiovascular disease, cancer and type 2 diabetes, across the EU.
The letter highlights that today’s food environments often make healthy choices harder. Ultra-processed foods and foods high in fat, salt and sugar are heavily promoted, widely available and aggressively marketed, while foods more closely linked to good health outcomes, including vegetables, fruits, legumes and wholegrains, are often less available, less promoted and comparatively more expensive.
This advocacy work forms part of PAN’s wider commitment to advancing healthier food environments and supporting cardiovascular health through its Food for the Heart campaign. Improving heart health requires action not only in clinical care, but also across the wider systems and environments that shape everyday food choices.
What the joint letter calls for
The signatories are calling on the European Commission to take a whole-portfolio approach to unhealthy diets, addressing both the overconsumption of ultra-processed and high-fat, salt and sugar foods, and the under-consumption of healthy whole foods.
The letter urges immediate policy action in several key areas, including:
stronger restrictions on the marketing and advertising of unhealthy foods to children;
healthier public food procurement and school food environments;
incentives for companies to reformulate particularly unhealthy food categories;
mandatory front-of-pack nutrition labelling;
and the reorientation of public subsidies away from unhealthy foods and towards healthier foods, especially for lower-income households.
The letter also calls for the forthcoming Commission study on ultra-processed foods to be independent, science-led, comprehensive, transparent and focused on actionable policy solutions.
Why this matters for cardiovascular health
Cardiovascular disease remains Europe’s primary public health challenge. Diet is a key modifiable risk factor, but individual choices are strongly shaped by affordability, availability, marketing and policy.
Through Food for the Heart, PAN is working to advance evidence-based nutrition as an essential part of cardiovascular prevention, management and wider public health action. Supporting healthier food environments is central to that mission.
👉 Read the joint letter here.