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Syllabus:

Foods and Meals for a Sustainable Future, 7.5 credits

Swedish name: Livsmedel och måltider för en hållbar framtid
This syllabus is valid: 2026-01-19 and until further notice
Course code: 2KN083
Credit points: 7.5
Education level: Second cycle
Main Field of Study and progress level: Restaurant and Culinary Arts: Second cycle, has only first-cycle course/s as entry requirements
Food and Nutrition: Second cycle, has only first-cycle course/s as entry requirements
Grading scale: Three-grade scale
Responsible department: Department of Food, Nutrition and Culinary Science
Established by: Carita Bengs, Prefekt, 2025-09-08,

Contents

The course aims to provide a broad understanding of the interrelationships between food, nutrition, and culinary science within the context of sustainable consumption and production. The course will examine how the main discourses within these disciplines overlap and interact, and how such discourses can be like different languages. The course will emphasize Sustainable Development Goal 12 (SDG12) "responsible production and consumption" and the need for a dietary shift towards plant-based meals at a population level.

In this course, students will gain knowledge on how to translate and bridge the gaps between different disciplines, with a focus on food science, nutrition, and culinary science. They will also learn about the barriers to diet shift and the adoption of more sustainable and healthy alternatives. The course will cover a wide range of topics, including foods and meals that are sustainable, dietary colonialism, responsible use of resources, and the sensory aspects of the meal experience. The course will apply a "Problem-based learning" approach, where students will be given scenarios or problems, and they will come up with solutions by applying their previous knowledge together with the newly acquired information in the course. Group work will be a key element in this course to develop interpersonal competencies.

The course consists of three parts:

  1. Understanding Food Systems, 2,5 HE credits
  2. Transforming the Food and Meal System, 2,5 HE credits
  3. Is plant-based eating a responsible consumer behavior? 2,5 HE credits

Part 1. Understanding Food Systems, 2,5 HE credits
This part of the course will introduce the food system; how it works, how it has developed over time, and what alternatives exist to the current system. Students will describe what a sustainable food system looks like.

Part 2. Transforming the Food and Meal System, 2,5 HE credits
This part of the course will focus on the role that food, nutrition, and culinary science play in transforming the food system, and in jointly discovering how individuals can be empowered as agents of change in the marketplace.

Part 3. Is plant-based eating a responsible consumer behavior? 2,5 HE credits
This part of the course will focus on plant-based diets and their role in creating a more sustainable, just, fair, and resilient food system. Students will analyze the opportunities and challenges associated with achieving a dietary shift at population level.

Expected learning outcomes

Part 1. Understanding Food Systems, 2,5 HE credits
On successful completion of the course, students will be able to:

Knowledge and understanding

  • Recall facts, definitions, and concepts related to sustainable food systems
  • Describe how food systems affect environmental sustainability

Skills

  • Evaluate how the food system results from complex intersections between nutrition, environment, ethics, justice, equity, and history
  • Combine and integrate complex relationships addressing food-related sustainability problems

Competences and analytical ability

  • Utilize strategic thinking competency enabling to recognize the historical roots and power struggles that made the current food system unsustainable
  • Describe and design an ideal sustainable food and meal system

Part 2. Transforming the Food and Meal System, 2,5 HE credits
On successful completion of the course, students will be able to:

Knowledge and understanding

  • Describe the role of food, nutrition, and culinary science in transforming the food system
  • Understand economic concepts relevant to the food system

Skills

  • Effectively communicate conceptual gaps between different disciplines, and conflictive discourses around sustainable foods and meals
  • Implement standard operation practices for sustainability in workplaces (public or private)

Competences and analytical ability

  • Apply values-thinking competency enabling to recognize normalized oppressive structures in the food system and to identify one's own values towards sustainability
  • Apply futures-thinking competency enabling to implement new and resilient food systems

Part 3. Is plant-based eating a responsible consumer behavior? 2,5 HE credits
On successful completion of the course, students will be able to:

Knowledge and understanding

  • Recognize why a dietary shift is needed at population level, and identify the social challenges that make it difficult
  • Explain the role of sensory characteristics on acceptance of sustainable foods and meals

Skills

  • Engage with different actors to co-create sustainable and acceptable alternatives to the current public meal systems
  • Propose innovative behavior change strategies facilitating diet shift

Competences and analytical ability

  • Engage and motivate diverse stakeholders toward shifting diets for environmental and health reasons

Required Knowledge

90 ECTS in one subject including at least 7,5 ECTS thesis. English for basic eligibility for higher education.

Form of instruction

The course will be provided in hybrid format; online and in person at Umeå University. Internet access, webcam, and headset/microphone are required.

Part 1. Understanding Food Systems, 2,5 HE credits
The teaching consists of live lectures, seminars, and group work. Participation in seminars and group work is mandatory.

Part 2. Transforming the Food and Meal System, 2,5 HE credits
The teaching consists of live lectures, seminars, and group work. Participation in seminars and group work is mandatory.

Part 3. Is plant-based eating a responsible consumer behavior? 2,5 HE credits
The teaching consists of live lectures, seminars, and group work. Participation in seminars and group work is mandatory.

Examination modes

Part 1. Understanding Food Systems, 2,5 HE credits
This part is examined by:

  • Individual online quiz (Fail [U]/Pass [G]/Pass with distinction [VG])
  • Group presentation (U/G)

Part 2. Transforming the Food and Meal System, 2,5 HE credits
This part is examined by:

  • Individual reflection (U/G/VG)
  • Seminars (U/G)
  • Group presentation (U/G)

Part 3. Is plant-based eating a responsible consumer behavior? 2,5 HE credits
This part is examined by:

  • Individual written reflection (U/G/VG)
  • Group presentation (U/G)

Full course
To pass the course, all examinations must at least be graded pass (G). To pass the course with distinction (VG), two parts must be graded VG.

Ph.D. students can take 2 parts of the course (5 ECTS) and write how their PhD research contributes to a more sustainable food or meal system.

A re-examination will be offered no later than two months after the ordinary examination, however, the re-examination will be offered no earlier than ten working days after the result of the ordinary examination has been announced and a copy of the student's exam is available for the student. For exams conducted during May and June, the first retest may be offered within three months of the regular examination.

In addition, at least one further re-examination must be offered within one year from the regular examination. In cases where exams or compulsory teaching elements cannot be repeated in accordance with current rules for re-examination and retraining, it may instead be replaced by another assignment. The scope and content of such a task must be proportionate to the missed mandatory element.

Deviations from the syllabus can be made for a student who has been granted educational support due to a disability. Individual adaptation of the examination form will be considered based on the student's needs. The form of examination is adapted within the framework of the syllabus's expected study outcomes. At the request of the student, the teacher responsible for the course, in consultation with the examiner, must promptly decide on an adapted examination form. The decision must then be notified to the student.

Students who fail at one examination have the opportunity to take part in renewed examination on at least five occasions. A student has the right to request a change of examiner after two failed tests on parts of the course. The Director of Studies is contacted in such cases. The examinations based on this syllabus can be guaranteed for two years after the student's first registration on the course. Students who have been graded pass on a test cannot undergo a re-examination. In the event that the syllabus expires or undergoes major changes, students are guaranteed at least three examination opportunities (including ordinary examination opportunity) according to current syllabus for a maximum period of two years from the date the previous syllabus expired or the course ceased to be offered.

Transfer of credits
Transfer of credits regarding this course (in whole or in part) can be tested. See the university's regulations and transfer of credit system. The application is made at the university's' e-service for credit transfer.

Literature

Valid from: 2025 week 3

Recommended Literature

Plant-based food and protein trend from a business perspective: markets, consumers, and the challenges and opportunities in the future
Aschemann-Witzel J, Gantriis R.F., Fraga P, Perez-Cueto F. J. A
Critical reviews in food science and nutrition, 61(18), 3119–3128. : 2021 :
https://doi.org/10.1080/10408398.2020.1793730
Mandatory

Multiple health and environmental impacts of foods
Clark M.A., Springmann M, Hill J, Tilman D
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, 116(46), 23357–23362 : 2019 :
https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1906908116
Mandatory

Meat consumption, health, and the environment
Godfray H. C. J., Aveyard P, Garnett T, Hall J. W., Key T. J., Lorimer J, Pierrehumbert R. T., Scarborough P, Springmann M, Jebb S. A.
Science (New York, N.Y.), 361(6399), eaam5324. : 2018 :
https://doi.org/10.1126/science.aam5324
Mandatory

Reducing food's environmental impacts through producers and consumers
Poore J, Nemecek T
Science (New York, N.Y.), 360(6392), 987–992. : 2018 :
https://doi.org/10.1126/science.aaq0216
Mandatory

Options for keeping the food system within environmental limits
Springmann M, Clark M, Mason-D'Croz D, Wiebe K, Bodirsky B. L., Lassaletta L, de Vries W, Vermeulen S. J., Herrero M, Carlson K. M., Jonell M, Troell M, DeClerck F, Gordon L. J., Zurayk R, Scarborough P, Rayner M, Loken B, Fanzo J, Godfray H. C. J., Willett W
Nature, 562(7728), 519–525 : 2018 :
https://doi.org/10.1038/s41586-018-0594-0
Mandatory

Food in the Anthropocene: the EAT-Lancet Commission on healthy diets from sustainable food systems
Willett W, Rockström J, Loken B, Springmann M, Lang T, Vermeulen S, Garnett T, Tilman D, DeClerck F, Wood A, Jonell M, Clark M, Gordon L. J., Fanzo J, Hawkes C, Zurayk R, Rivera J. A., De Vries W, Majele Sibanda L, Afshin A, Murray C. J. L.
Lancet (London, England), 393(10170), 447–492. : 2019 :
https://doi.org/10.1016/S0140-6736(18)31788-4
Mandatory

Reference literature

Which Diet Has the Least Environmental Impact on Our Planet? A Systematic Review of Vegan, Vegetarian and Omnivorous Diets
Chai B.C., Van der Voort J.R., Grofelnik K, Eliasdottir H.G., Klöss I, Perez-Cueto F.J.A.
Design & Consumer Behaviour Section, Department of Food Science, Faculty of Science, University of Copenhagen : 2019 :
Sustainability, 11(15), 4110. MDPI AG. Retrieved from

A Comprehensive Review of the Benefits of and the Barriers to the Switch to a Plant-Based Diet
Fehér A, Gazdecki M, Véha M, Szakály M, Szakály Z
Sustainability, 12(10), 4136. MDPI AG. Retrieved from : 2020 :
http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/su12104136

Animal- and Plant-Based Protein Sources: A Scoping Review of Human Health Outcomes and Environmental Impact
Ferrari L, Panaite S-A, Bertazzo A, Visioli F
Nutrients, 14(23), 5115. MDPI AG. Retrieved from : 2022 :
http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/nu14235115

Implications of a food system approach for policy agenda-setting design
Kugelberg S, Bartolini F, Kanter D.R., Milford A. B., Pira K, Sanz-Cobena A, Leip A
Global food security, 28, 100451. : 2021 :
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.gfs.2020.100451

The 2021 report of the Lancet Countdown on health and climate change: code red for a healthy future
Romanello M, McGushin A, Di Napoli C, Drummond P, Hughes N, Jamart L, Kennard H, Lampard P, Solano Rodriguez B, Arnell N, Ayeb-Karlsson S, Belesova K, Cai W, Campbell-Lendrum D, Capstick S, Chambers J, Chu L, Ciampi L, Dalin C, Dasandi N, Hamilton I
Lancet (London, England), 398(10311), 1619–1662. : 2021 :
https://doi.org/10.1016/S0140-6736(21)01787-6

). Understanding the Political Challenge of Red and Processed Meat Reduction for Healthy and Sustainable Food Systems: A Narrative Review of the Literature
Sievert K, Lawrence M, Parker C, Baker P
International journal of health policy and management, 10(12), 793–808. : 2021 :
https://doi.org/10.34172/ijhpm.2020.238

Additional papers will be added throughout the course, and will be indicated to which part they belong.