Rising food prices are renewing the debate about strengthening children’s and adolescents’ nutrition skills.
Ramona Pop, head of the German Consumer Advice Association (Verbraucherzentrale Bundesverband – VZBV), told the “Redaktionsnetzwerk Deutschland” that discussing nutrition as part of consumer education in schools could help people grasp the whole issue more clearly. Similar demands have recently come from the Federal Agency for Nutrition and the food industry.
“The VZBV already offers a nationwide consumer‑school programme” Pop explained. “However, structural consumer education has long failed to be incorporated into the curricula of all federal states”.
On the topic of food waste she added that more public enlightenment is needed. Continuous information on, for example, the fact that food does not go bad immediately after the best‑before date would be useful.
At the same time, Pop reiterated the need for a price‑monitoring office for food. “This office would analyse markets to determine where costs arise and how prices are set” she said. “In France it works very well – experts choose a different market each time, sometimes milk products, sometimes vegetables or fruit”.
She called transparency of food prices “still a black box” in Germany. “In the end the consumer pays a high price at the register and wonders how it is made up” she said.