Food-related healthcare costs can reach €10.4bn when diet-related disease, healthcare use and wider social harm are considered together. The figure shows that food environment and health are closely connected.
For the Mensa Mensa analysis, this provides an important frame. Affordable, healthy and accessible food can have preventive value by supporting better food choices and reducing health risks. The point is not that one initiative prevents all costs, but that food interventions belong within a wider prevention strategy.