Ninety families are improving their eating habits based on the Mediterranean diet by taking part in a nutritional intervention study and educational programme designed by dieticians and nutritionists in the European SwitchToHealthy project.

The initiative aims to increase adherence to the Mediterranean diet “of all family members, including children, teens and adults, by encouraging a change in dietary behaviour generated by the family itself while adding to knowledge about sustainable food,” says Noemi Boqué, SwitchToHealthy’s scientific coordinator and a researcher in the Nutrition and Health Unit at the Eurecat technology centre.

To this end, the project’s educational programme includes interactive digital resources such as an app to get personalised meal plans, educational activities for teenagers and healthy plant-based snacks for children.

The SwitchToHealthy study, conducted by the Eurecat Nutrition and Health Unit in Reus and the Centre for Research in Agri-Food Economics and Development (CREDA) in Castelldefels, is being run until December. During their participation, families have follow-up visits at these centres or their primary and high schools in the Tarragona and Barcelona areas.

The project consortium is coordinated by ENCO SRL, an Italian firm specialising in business innovation, and has 18 partners from Italy, Egypt, Spain, Greece, Lebanon, Morocco, Tunisia and Turkey including universities, small and medium-sized enterprises and multinationals along with government agencies and research and technology centres. SwitchToHealthy is funded through the PRIMA call with the backing of the European Union’s Horizon 2020 programme.