Conceptual framework of food systems for children and adolescents

Abstract

Transforming food systems is essential to ensuring nutritious, safe, affordable, and sustainable diets for all, including children and adolescents. This paper proposes a new conceptual framework (the ‘Innocenti Framework’) to better articulate how the diets of children and adolescents are shaped by food systems. The framework is comprised of a set of food system drivers, determinants (namely, food supply chains, external food environments, personal food environments, and behaviors of caregivers, children and adolescents), influencers, and interactions, which together determine children's and adolescents' diets. The conceptual framework conceptualizes the dynamic linkages between the elements of food systems, and highlights the importance of continuously shaping food systems to deliver nutritious, safe, affordable, and sustainable diets to children and adolescents.