Food Literacy Framework For Public Health Planning

A Comprehensive Call to Action for Healthy Eating: Leveraging a Food Literacy Framework in Modern Public Health

As we move ahead into the year 2026, the issues facing the global public health environment in terms of public health are no less important than before; on the contrary, they persist and become even more pressing. Diseases related to the group of chronic conditions such as cardiovascular diseases, diabetes, and various types of cancer are still the leading causes of mortality and morbidity rates both within North America and globally. Among the most serious dietary risks contributing to mortality, there should be named the lack of healthy eating skills. Due to this persisting problem, there was a paradigm shift from nutrition education and cooking courses to food literacy.

This Call to Action is aimed at highlighting the importance of research which has brought up the term ‘food literacy’ as a framework allowing to tackle issues with healthy eating. By defining five categories and attributes of food literacy, and illustrating the connections between food literacy and Modernized Public Health Standards, this guide offers ways for applying its recommendations to practice. Food literacy can be used as the evidence-based tool for improving healthy eating practices and programs in the field of public health.

The Current Situation: Healthy Eating, Food Literacy, and Population Health in a Modern Era

The food supply as well as the contexts in which eating decisions are made have changed significantly over the past decade. With the rising frequency of mega-fast-food retailing businesses alongside the rapid expansion of online food delivery services, the world’s food systems have seen considerable change. It is now easier than ever for consumers to access affordable and energy-dense but poor-nutrient food and beverages around-the-clock.

Concurrently, there has been an observable decrease in food preparation capabilities within households – a trend known as deskilling in the literature of public health research. Such decline is due mainly to lack of introduction or experience to acquire such knowledge through parents, grandparents, and schools. Lifestyle changes have forced convenience foods to replace intergenerational knowledge exchange.

Nevertheless, independently of the individual’s ability to prepare foods, a very complicated matrix of considerations determines their choice of meals. These include physiological needs, availability of certain foods, individual taste, affordability, intensive marketing campaigns, convenience, and changing social trends. Food choices and skills used to prepare them are determined to a great extent by the dynamic socioeconomic and cultural context.

All of these variables collectively determine the level of food literacy of an individual or of a community. As a consequence of all these complicated barriers, modern-day eating habits are invariably inconsistent with established evidence-based nutritional guidelines. Given the immense influence that food literacy has on eating habits, food-health-environment relationships receive considerable attention in modern public health science.

Background: The Genesis of the Food Literacy Framework

Recognizing that food literacy is a vital influence on eating patterns, the LDCP team—comprising members from numerous public health units—identified a critical gap: the absence of a reliable measurement tool and a lack of shared understanding regarding the comprehensive nature of food literacy. This made it incredibly challenging for nutrition practitioners to assess the true impact of their programs on community eating behaviors.

To address this, the LDCP team conducted an extensive Scoping Review of peer-reviewed and grey literature, followed by a consensus-building Delphi Technique involving public health practitioners and key stakeholders. The goal was to establish the cogency, relevance, and importance of various attributes within the public health context.

This rigorous methodology resulted in a definitive, evidence-informed definition: Food Literacy is a set of interconnected attributes organized into the categories of food and nutrition knowledge, skills, self-efficacy/confidence, food decisions, and other ecologic factors (external) such as income security and the food system.

Historically, public health guidance often reduced food literacy to basic “food skills”—defined merely as the knowledge, planning, and mechanical techniques of preparing food. The LDCP research confirmed that teaching a population how to chop vegetables and read a recipe is fundamentally insufficient for achieving population-wide healthy eating outcomes. Food skills represent just one component of a much broader framework required to drive meaningful behavioral change.

The Five Categories and 11 Key Attributes of Food Literacy

To effectively apply this framework to public health planning and evaluation, practitioners must understand the five interrelated categories and their specific attributes.

1. Food and Nutrition Knowledge

This category relates to the factual information acquired through experience or education regarding foods and nutrition, including the capacity to distinguish between health-promoting and health-hindering foods.

• Food Knowledge: The ability to identify a variety of foods within all food groups. It encompasses knowing where food comes from, understanding what is in it, and possessing the awareness to make informed decisions based on what is available locally.
• Nutrition Knowledge: A deeper comprehension of the specific nutrients within food and exactly how these components affect overall human health, cognitive function, and long-term wellbeing.
• Food and Nutrition Language: The capacity to understand commonly used terminology to describe nutritional characteristics (e.g., high fiber, low sodium, trans fats) as well as culinary terms related to food preparation (e.g., sauté, fold, blanch).

2. Food Skills

This category focuses on the practical, mechanical techniques required to navigate the food environment safely and effectively.

• Food Skills: The hands-on ability to prepare healthy and safe meals throughout the entire lifespan. This involves fundamental mechanical techniques such as chopping, measuring, reading and scaling recipes, safe food handling, purchasing, and proper storage practices to minimize waste and prevent foodborne illness.

3. Self-Efficacy and Confidence

Knowledge and skills are virtually useless if an individual lacks the belief in their ability to use them. This category highlights the psychological components of food preparation.

• Food and Nutrition Self-Efficacy: The internal belief in one’s own ability to consistently apply food and nutrition-related knowledge to make healthy choices within a highly complex, often deceptive modern food environment.
• Cooking Self-Efficacy: The distinct confidence required to operate cooking equipment safely and to prepare tasty, culturally appropriate meals utilizing whatever food is currently accessible or affordable.
• Food Attitude: An individual’s mindset toward food, including their willingness and desire to try new ingredients. It encapsulates the motivation to purposefully choose and prepare healthy, safe food to enjoy regularly.

4. Food Decisions

This category represents the actual behavioral output—the culmination of knowledge, skills, and confidence applied to real-world choices.

• Nutrition Literacy: The critical thinking skills necessary to distinguish between credible, evidence-based nutrition information and false or misleading claims. In an era dominated by social media health trends, this includes knowing how to source reliable information and making sense of complex food labels.
• Dietary Behaviour: The actionable, day-to-day application of knowledge and skills resulting in the continuous selection of healthy food choices.

5. Ecologic Factors (External)

Perhaps the most crucial modernization of the framework is the recognition of external forces that operate well beyond individual control.

• Food and Other Systems: A comprehensive understanding of how the broader agricultural and commercial food system, alongside society as a whole, impacts an individual’s daily food decisions. Conversely, it includes understanding how individual choices (such as purchasing local produce) impact the local economy, farming communities, and environmental sustainability.
• Social Determinants of Health: Acknowledging the profound impact of social and environmental conditions. Factors such as inadequate income, lack of education, and systemic poverty result in stark health inequities. A lack of living wage directly limits a family’s capacity to make autonomous decisions about high-quality food purchasing and cooking.

Aligning Food Literacy with Modern Public Health Standards

Updated Public Health Standards function through policy systems that focus on holistic domains: Social Determinants of Health, Healthy Behaviours, Healthy Communities, and Population Health Assessment. The food literacy model fits perfectly within these domains, offering a strategic plan of action for public health interventions.

To begin with, the social ecological aspect of “Social Determinants of Health” links well to basic public health standards concerning health equity. The existence of social and environmental factors leading to poor health equity results in a significant limitation of a person’s ability to make wise decisions regarding their food intake. It is impossible to demand a change in dietary behaviour while neglecting these underlying issues.

Also, the domains of Food and Nutrition Knowledge, Food Skills, and Self-Efficacy support the development of the Healthy Behaviours domain. By incorporating food literacy into Foundational Standards, like Population Health Assessment and Effective Public Health Practice, practitioners have a uniform measure for assessing these areas. Given the commitment made by the LDCP to develop this measuring device within the 2018-2019 timeframe, the field of public health has started to rely on specific measures of effectiveness when implementing interventions to promote healthy eating behaviors.

Five Strategic Recommendations for Public Health Action

The Call to Action outlines five primary recommendations designed to integrate the food literacy framework into everyday public health planning, implementation, and evaluation. By adopting these evidence-informed strategies, health units can ensure continuous quality improvement.

Recommendation #1: Support and adopt the research findings.

Rationale: Adopting a shared, evidence-based definition of food literacy ensures that all programs are informed by the highest standard of evidence. It fosters vital knowledge exchange and contributes to a consistent professional language, which is foundational for cross-departmental collaboration and accurate program evaluation. Action: Public health units must communicate the comprehensive food literacy definition and its 11 key attributes broadly to all relevant staff and community partners. Furthermore, leadership must advocate for a shift in programmatic language, explicitly transitioning away from narrow “food skills” programming toward holistic “food literacy” programming.

Recommendation #2: Use food literacy as a comprehensive framework to identify attributes addressed in current and new programs.

Rationale: Utilizing the framework supports a systematic, highly structured process for planning and evaluating initiatives. By mapping existing programs against the 11 attributes, practitioners can quickly identify programmatic gaps or areas for enhancement. This alignment is particularly critical when addressing the specific needs of priority populations, such as marginalized youth or young families navigating life stage transitions. Action: Practitioners should review all current internal and community-wide healthy eating programs through the lens of the food literacy framework. If an existing initiative is not reflective of the broader attributes—for example, if a cooking class ignores the socio-economic barriers of its attendees—feasible enhancements must be implemented. Collaboration with partners who specialize in healthy environments or social equity is essential for a comprehensive approach.

Recommendation #3: Use the comprehensive food literacy framework to implement healthy eating programs in schools.

Rationale: Schools are critical environments for shaping lifelong behaviors. Integrating food literacy into school health programs directly contributes to the physical and cognitive development of children and youth. Action: Public health staff must actively engage with school boards, educators, and parent committees. Programs should evolve beyond simple cafeteria menus to include comprehensive curriculum integration that touches upon food systems, critical nutrition literacy (navigating marketing), and hands-on cooking self-efficacy.

Recommendation #4: Support the ongoing use and refinement of tools for measuring food literacy.

Rationale: Without measurement, evaluation is impossible. A standardized tool provides a reliable means to understand the specific relevance of food literacy to local diet and health outcomes. It supports robust research activities and fosters vital relationships with academic partners and provincial health organizations. Action: Public health practitioners must allocate staff time and resources to utilize measurement tools in practice. This allows agencies to identify local population needs, monitor progress, tailor and target interventions precisely, and engage in data-driven advocacy for resource allocation.

Recommendation #5: Work with community partners to rebrand and promote relevant community-based food programs as ‘food literacy programs’ rather than food security programs.

Rationale: There is a persistent and dangerous misconception that community gardens, community kitchens, or subsidized Good Food Boxes can solve household food insecurity. While these excellent programs enhance food access, build food knowledge, increase cooking self-efficacy, and improve dietary behaviors, rigorous evidence shows they do not address the root cause of household food insecurity: inadequate income. Action: Health units must develop and implement knowledge exchange plans to educate community partners on this distinction. Programs must be properly branded as food literacy initiatives to avoid minimizing the critical issue of poverty. Public health must separately support broader advocacy for income-based responses to food insecurity, such as living wages and adequate social assistance.

Examples of Food Literacy in Action: Case Studies

To contextualize the framework, it is highly beneficial to examine how different public health programs can integrate and strengthen these attributes.

Case Study 1: Municipal Recreation Programs Imagine a municipal recreation center that implements a program to place healthier items on its canteen menu, utilizing pricing and purchasing strategies to make healthy food cheaper. They launch a promotional campaign, provide web-based nutrition information, and offer taste-testing.

• Attributes Addressed: Food Knowledge, Nutrition Knowledge, Food and Nutrition Language, Nutrition Literacy, Food Attitude, and Dietary Behaviour.
• Areas for Strengthening: To deepen the impact, the recreation setting could provide practical, hands-on food skills workshops for youth in after-school programs, thereby addressing Food Skills and Cooking Self-Efficacy. Furthermore, by linking with local farmers to supply the canteen, the program could promote awareness of sustainable agricultural practices, successfully integrating the Food and Other Systems attribute.

Case Study 2: Train-the-Trainer for Indigenous Populations A diabetes prevention project focusing on Indigenous populations partners with local community centers to develop community kitchen modules. Partners are trained to host these kitchens, connecting clients around culturally relevant food preparation.

• Attributes Addressed: Food Knowledge, Nutrition Knowledge, Food Skills, Cooking Self-Efficacy, and Social Determinants of Health. This is achieved through hands-on learning, practicing new techniques, and providing grocery gift cards to alleviate immediate financial barriers.
• Areas for Strengthening: To truly address Food Attitude, participants must feel safe embracing and practicing their cultural traditions in a colonial health system. Additionally, Social Determinants of Health can be further acknowledged by recognizing that program funds often cannot fix infrastructure issues (like access to clean drinking water on reservations) or provide mental health supports, which are fundamental to holistic wellbeing.

Case Study 3: Healthy Babies Healthy Children (HBHC) Initiatives Public health staff recognize the vast barriers their clients face regarding food literacy. A policy is developed to train staff in tailoring support. Staff attend grocery store tours, learn hands-on cooking, and use food literacy questionnaires to guide clients.

• Attributes Addressed: Staff training targets virtually all knowledge, skills, and self-efficacy attributes, aiming to increase the client’s confidence in using basic kitchen implements like slow cookers.
• Areas for Strengthening: While staff can teach skills, clients may still face Social Determinants of Health such as limited funds for transportation to purchase high-quality ingredients. Furthermore, short-term interventions often struggle with capacity issues, making it difficult for public health workers to verify long-term improvements in Dietary Behaviour and Cooking Self-Efficacy. Continuous follow-up and structural support are required.

Case Study 4: Comprehensive Municipality Food Strategies A city government rolls out a multi-year strategy encompassing the entire local food system. The municipality allocates resources to address food issues holistically, prioritizing food literacy training for various community partners and focusing on sustainable, local food networks.

• Attributes Addressed: This macro-level approach addresses all 11 attributes. Training covers dietary guidelines, ingredient substitutions, and practical applications for leading community workshops.
• Areas for Strengthening: The municipality must ensure continuous, targeted efforts to connect low-income and youth populations specifically with the local food system, bridging the gap between abstract policy and lived, daily experiences of growing, cooking, and eating.