ALPHA. Demokratiskolan.se is a PROTOTYPE · Content review in progress
Demokratiskolan
The Food & nutrition card from MethodKit for Society and Politics
Card 66 of 128 · MethodKit for Society & Politics
  • AreaWelfare & health
  • Centre of gravityCentral government
  • Points of influence3 on the journey
  • Decisive electionThe general election
Welfare & health

Food & nutrition

How to encourage & provide good food & habits

What you eat is shaped by decisions far from your plate: the EU's labelling rules, the central government's dietary advice, the municipality's school food and the inspection of the restaurant on the corner. Few everyday areas are governed so much from Brussels, and so little by the region.

Where does the power lie?1

  • Municipality · school food & food inspection · approx 25 %
  • Region · hospital food & dietary advice in care · approx 5 %
  • State · dietary advice, laws & inspection · approx 35 %
  • EU · labelling, safety & agriculture · approx 35 %

The rulebook for food is to a large extent written in the EU, but dietary advice, inspection and school food are Swedish decisions. The European Parliament election weighs unusually heavily here.

How it works: the breakdown

The municipalityThe plate & the inspection
The regionA small role
Central governmentThe dietary advice & the law · centre of gravity
Who decides?
The municipal council (kommunfullmäktige), the education committee, the environment and health protection committee and the municipality's catering unit.
The region governs food in the hospitals and dietary advice in care, not much more.
The Riksdag, the Government, the National Food Agency (Livsmedelsverket) and the Board of Agriculture (Jordbruksverket).
What do they decide?
School food and food in elderly care, procurement of ingredients and inspection of shops and restaurants.
Patient food and the dietitians in care. No power over the food in your shop.
The food act, the Swedish dietary advice, the rules for inspection and the education act's requirement of free, nutritious school meals.
Where are decisions made?
In the committees and in the municipality's food policy. The inspection results are public.
In the region's procurements and care programmes.
In the Riksdag and at the National Food Agency, which leads food inspection in the country.
Who pays?
The municipal tax pays for school food. Businesses pay fees for food inspection.
The regional tax pays for patient food.
The central government budget pays for the agencies. School food is paid by the municipality, in line with the central government's requirement.
Fastest way in?
Municipal election The school's food council, a citizen's proposal (medborgarförslag) about the food policy, a report to the environment office.
Regional election A small way in here: views on hospital food go through the patients' committee.
General election A referral response (remiss) on rules and dietary advice, a tip to the National Food Agency.
EUThe EU sets the rules for labelling, additives and food safety and steers the agricultural subsidies that shape food prices. Shaped in the European Parliament election.

Read the table by column to understand one level, or by row to compare the levels. The green level is the area's centre of gravity.

How it works: follow the decision

The case The school lunch comes to be
  1. EU

    The EU writes the rulebook

    What may be sold as food, how it must be labelled and which additives are allowed are decided at EU level. Agricultural policy also steers what is grown and what the ingredients cost.

  2. State

    The education act requires nutritious food

    The education act says that school meals in compulsory school must be free and nutritious. The National Food Agency's dietary advice and guidelines for school food guide the municipalities.

    Point of influence

    The general election steers the education act and the agencies' tasks. New rules go out for referral (remiss).

  3. Municipality

    The catering unit plans and procures

    The municipality's catering unit sets the menu and procures the ingredients under the procurement rules. The budget per portion is in practice set by the municipality's politicians.

    Point of influence

    The municipal election steers the budget per portion. Many schools have a food council where pupils and parents influence the menu.

  4. Municipality

    The kitchen is inspected

    The inspectors of the environment and health protection committee check the school kitchen just like restaurants and shops. The results are official documents.

    Point of influence

    Suspect failings in a kitchen, a restaurant or a shop? Report it to the municipality's environment office.

  5. Your everyday life

    Tuesday: fish, potatoes and two vegetables

    A plate of food that no pupil pays for at the till. The menu behind it was decided in Brussels, the Riksdag and the town hall, in that order.

The journey looks the same in reverse: what has been built came the same way, through the same decisions. Whoever knows where the decisions are made also knows where they can be changed.

Questions to discuss

  1. What should a school lunch be allowed to cost, and what is it worth?

  2. How much should the public sector steer what we eat: taxes, labelling, campaigns or nothing?

  3. Locally produced, organic or as cheap as possible: what should your municipality procure, and why?

  4. Who carries the responsibility when food makes us ill: the producer, the shop, the inspection or ourselves?

  5. What would make it easier to eat well where you live?

Glossary

Kostenhet
The municipality's organisation for food in schools, preschools and care.
Livsmedelskontroll
Inspections of kitchens, shops and restaurants, usually carried out by the municipality.
Upphandling
When the public sector buys goods and services under special rules on competition.
Kostråd
The National Food Agency's scientifically grounded advice on what we should eat.
Matråd
A forum in many schools where pupils get to have a say on the school food.

Go further

Footnotes

1) This is an estimate of how decision-making power over the issue is split between the municipality, the region, central government and the EU, based on how responsibility is divided in legislation. A teaching guide, not an exact measurement.