An international foundation dedicated to the promotion of the Mediterranean diet has been created. The International Foundation of Mediterranean Diet (IFMeD) is registered in London, UK and aims to bring together institutions, universities, and research centers from different countries as well as actors from the private sector and consumers interested in promoting the Mediterranean diet.
Lluis Serra-Majem, chairman of IFMeD states on the Foundation’s website, that “despite the recognition by UNESCO of the Mediterranean Diet as an intangible cultural heritage, the adherence to this dietary pattern has been falling down in some Mediterranean countries as a consequence of the economic constraints Europe is facing since 2008. It is therefore essential to enhance the Mediterranean Diet as a healthy and sustainable life style [sic] model, adapting it to current socio-economic and cultural changes, as well as preserving and reaffirming it as an intangible cultural heritage of humankind.”
IFMeD aims to bring together multidisciplinary knowledge and expertise and act as a think tank to analyze, validate and disseminate relevant scientific studies on the Mediterranean diet. The Foundation’s mission statement points to the need for a “transnational scientific guarantor” which is above local and national interests, in order to promote the Mediterranean diet as a healthy and sustainable lifestyle.
Sandro Dernini, the general secretary of IFMeD declared that “there is a need for a new interdisciplinary and intercultural rethinking for the revitalization of the Mediterranean Diet. Therefore, IFMeD can be the ideal international place for promoting this change by acting to reconstruct a sustainable food cultural context for the Med Diet, more suitable to the current times and for all people”.
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