End of 2025, the European Commission adopted its Communication on an EU Cardiovascular Health Plan, the Safe Hearts Plan, focussing on prevention by targeting unhealthy behaviours. For the food sector, the plan includes actions to improve dietary habits, a study on so-called “ultra-processed foods”, and development of a food processing assessment system to support healthier diets.

In December 2025, during the 80th session of the United Nations (UN) General Assembly, world leaders adopted the 2025 Political Declaration of the Fourth United Nations High-Level Meeting on the prevention and control of non-communicable diseases and the promotion of mental health and well-being. The declaration acknowledges the ongoing urgency of addressing non-communicable diseases and mental health, reaffirms commitments made in previous High-Level Meetings in 2011, 2014, and 2018, and emphasises the need for multi-sectoral approaches. It also calls on the private sector to contribute responsibly.

The Joint Research Center (JRC) shared its technical proposal regarding an EU harmonized waste sorting labelling system, in the context of the implementation of article 12 of the Packaging and Packaging Waste Regulation (PPWR).

At this stage, colour is given priority over purely monochrome designs recommendations and text labels are also a preferred solution. QR codes are proposed as optional complements to the labels to provide further sorting information. The report details also specific technicalities around the granularity, sizing, placement/positioning, accessibility features of the labels.

The European Commission will draft an implementing act based on these recommendations. The PPWR mandates the Commission to adopt the act establishing the harmonised label and related specifications by 12 August 2026.

End of November, The Lancet journal launched a series on “Ultra-Processed Foods and Human Health”, with three new papers.

The authors assert that UPFs are the predictable outcome of a food economy organised around corporate profit rather than nutrition or sustainability. The authors argue that the global rise of UPF consumption is commercially driven and calls for policymakers to regulate their production, marketing, sale, and consumption.

This first paper sets out the evidentiary foundation for treating UPFs as a major driver of the global burden of chronic disease. The two other papers then pick up from this evidentiary base: one spelling out the policy levers needed to curb UPF dominance and support minimally processed diets, and the third one analysing the commercial and political forces that sustain the UPF model and must be confronted for effective global action.

FoodDrinkEurope published a statement and you can also find here comments from experts, collected by the Science Media Centre.