PANACEA

Promotion of healthy, sustainable Mediterranean dietary habits during pregnancy and early childhood through a community intervention combining nutritional education, digital tools and the involvement of representatives from various sectors such as healthcare professionals, local farmers and producers, chefs and culinary experts, and community agents.

The PANACEA project promotes the adoption of a healthy, sustainable, local Mediterranean diet during the perinatal period, which encompasses pregnancy and the first four months after birth. The project is based on the idea that this stage is a window of opportunity to initiate and consolidate dietary and lifestyle habits that can have a long-term positive impact on the health of mothers, their partners, babies and the family as a whole.

PANACEA develops a community-based, multi-component intervention that combines digital support tools, motivational strategies, nutrition and cooking workshops, practical educational materials, peer support groups and initiatives to promote local consumption.

The project’s objective is to enable families from different Mediterranean countries to incorporate real changes into their daily lives, such as planning meals better, improving cooking skills and more easily accessing healthy, local and sustainable food.

The project also integrates short food supply chains, digital tools and environmental sustainability indicators, with the aim of bringing families closer to local producers and encouraging more informed consumption decisions. In this way, PANACEA not only focuses on nutritional education but also facilitates the conditions for families to choose Mediterranean, sustainable and locally sourced foods.

The intervention is being rolled out in parallel in three Mediterranean countries, Spain, Italy and Egypt, and involves 420 families: pregnant women, their partners and, where applicable, other children or family members involved in childcare.

This family and community dimension allows for changes in habits to go beyond the mother and also influence partners, grandparents, carers and other people in her immediate circle.

The study, which lasts ten and a half months, from the second trimester of pregnancy until four months after delivery, allows the dietary, behavioural, psychosocial, health and environmental impact of the integrated multicomponent approach to be assessed.

Eurecat coordinates the project through its Technology Unit for Nutrition and Health, which leads the scientific coordination and participates in the preparation and execution of the multicentre intervention. The unit also provides support during the different stages of the project (co-design, development, implementation, impact analysis), and ensures good methodological compliance.

On the other hand, the Digital Health Unit develops digital solutions and supports behaviour change, including educational modules, gamification, and in-person and virtual cooking demonstrations, while the Technology Consulting Department supports the co-design of the intervention components in collaboration with Mataró CareCityLab.

Meanwhile, the Waste, Energy and Environmental Impact Unit contributes to the development of nutritional indices and food classification systems through a dual life-cycle analysis, and monitors the nutritional and environmental performance of the diets of mothers and their partners.