What Helps and What Hurts When Sharing Data for Sustainable Food Solutions

This joint workshop report from the #Data4Food Cluster, comprising the DRG4Food, FOODITY, FoodDataQuest, and SOSFood and projects, presents and discusses challenges, enablers, and gains related to data sharing and AI-driven solutions for sustainable food systems. These findings are based on discussions from two breakout sessions, one focusing on consumers and citizens, and the other on industry and food system actors.

The workshop – held in June 2025 - was structured into three main parts: a presentation on the FOOD2030 EU Policy Context, "Food For Thought Pitches" from the four cluster projects, and two breakout room sessions. The breakout room discussions in particular explored perspectives from both consumers/citizens and industry/food system actors on data sharing and AI in food systems.

From the Consumers & Citizens Perspective:

• Concerns: Participants expressed concerns about personal data sharing, primarily focusing on tracking abuse/theft, privacy breaches and misuse of data, third-party data sharing issues, and damaging marketing leading to overconsumption.
• Enablers: Participants highlighted the need for user-centred data practices and privacy protection, more transparency and informed consent, improved data management and simplified regulations, and empowering users with control over their data and traceability.
• Gains: Despite the discussed concerns, potential gains from data sharing were identified and discussed, including personalisation and improved user experience, societal value and sustainability, and innovation opportunities by leveraging data.

From the Industry & Food System Actors Perspective:

• Data access difficulties: Participants expressed the need to access various types of data, including health and consumer data, supply chain and production data, waste and environmental data, and social and behavioural data.
• Bottlenecks: Key bottlenecks preventing data sharing were identified as commercial and business concerns, a general lack of trust and fear of data misuse, technical and operational challenges, and privacy and security regulations and their potential consequences.
• Opportunities: Unrestricted data sharing was identified as offering significant opportunities, including advancements in research and innovation, digital advancements, supply chain optimisation, consumer empowerment and transparency, increased transparency and trust among stakeholders, and the opportunity to gain a competitive advantage.
• Challenges with AI: The main challenges with AI in the food system were identified as data and information quality, trust and management, and complementing knowledge and environmental impact.

Based on these discussions, the report proposes five key recommendations and actions to foster more general, transparent, and valuable data sharing practices for sustainable food solutions:

1. Foster collaboration among institutions and industry to enable a culture of trust and transparency in data sharing.
2. Improve general data literacy and citizen empowerment across the food system.
3. Accelerate research and innovation in data-driven food solutions.
4. Strengthen regulations for data governance and ethical AI use.
5. Foster collaborative platforms for data-driven solutions.