Food safety and nutrition – how to prepare for a challenging future? New approaches for using scenarios for policy-making

Scenarios are a well-established methodology used in foresight. In this paper a three-phased process is described to maximise relevance for policy-making of a set of scenarios. As a first step, four scenarios were developed as a basis for the assessment of the ability of the EU’s legislative and policy framework on food safety and nutrition to deal with possible future challenges. In the second step the scenarios were analysed by stakeholders to identify the scenario-specific challenge profiles in terms of food safety and nutrition. Policy and regulatory responses were formulated towards improving the fitness of the EU food framework for the future. The pertinence and realism of this exercise generated questions about how the role of the EU policy maker in this area could develop. To answer this question, in a third step, a new tailor-made approachwas developed, allowing exploring and testing policy-making under diverse circumstances. The serious gaming platform, the Joint Research Centre’s Scenario Exploration System, was adapted and applied with a number of selected stakeholders. Both approaches, each on their own, demonstrated the power of scenarios for simulating realistic policy circumstances. In combination, the process allowed to examine, in systemic way, different aspects of future policies and fostering a more forward-looking mind-set to inform practical policy-making.