The NEXT-FOOD-MT project is the first national study in Malta to comprehensively investigate adolescent food literacy, front-of-pack food labelling, and the influence of both home and school food environments on dietary behaviours.
Malta continues to face one of Europe’s most urgent public health challenges: persistently high rates of childhood and adolescent overweight and obesity. While initiatives exist across schools and communities, we still know too little about how young people and their families interpret food labels, choose the foods they eat, and navigate their surrounding food environments.
To address this knowledge gap, the University of Malta has launched NEXT-FOOD-MT, the first national study examining how adolescents living in Malta interpret food labels and what foods they typically consume. It also investigates the family influence on food purchasing habits as well as the home and school food environments. Targeting students aged 13–15 years across state, church, and independent schools, the study is one of the most comprehensive adolescent nutrition studies ever conducted in Malta.
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Contact us on: nextfoodmt@um.edu.mt
Food choices emerge from a complex web of influences: knowledge, habits, price, culture, home availability, school surroundings, marketing, and the clarity of food labels. Yet Malta has never collected national-level data capturing these interconnected factors among adolescents.
NEXT-FOOD-MT was designed to fill this critical gap, asking questions such as:
Understanding these dynamics is essential for developing realistic and culturally relevant nutrition strategies that resonate within Maltese families and schools.
The study is led by Dr Sarah Cuschieri, Senior Lecturer at the Faculty of Medicine and Surgery, medical doctor, epidemiologist, and founder of the Chronic Disease Epidemiology Research Network (CDERN), a University of Malta network advancing high-quality research on non-communicable diseases in small states.
NEXT-FOOD-MT is conducted in collaboration with Prof. Stefano Moncada, Director of the Islands and Small States Institute (ISSI), whose expertise in social and environmental determinants and policy strengthens the study’s complexity, and Prof. Jason Gilliland (Western University, Canada), a global expert in youth food environments.
The project is funded by Xjenza Malta, in partnership with the Ministry for Health and Active Ageing, and endorsed by the Ministry for Education, Sport, Youth, Research and Innovation.
Teachers especially Home Economics educators play a pivotal role in shaping how adolescents learn about nutrition, food preparation, and food label literacy. Their day-to-day classroom experience offers unparalleled insight into:
Home Economics teachers are uniquely positioned to identify gaps in student understanding and highlight the real-world challenges young people face when interpreting food labels or making food choices. Their participation in focus groups ensures that the recommendations emerging from NEXT-FOOD-MT are grounded, feasible, and relevant to Malta’s educational context.
By examining how adolescents and families interpret food labels, choose foods, and shape their home food environments and by incorporating the invaluable expertise of Home Economics teachers, NEXT-FOOD-MT offers the first holistic understanding of Malta’s adolescent food landscape.
NEXT-FOOD-MT is not simply a research project, it is a national investment in the wellbeing of Malta’s youth.
