What digital tools are currently available to engage citizens in the food system transformation, and how effective are they? SPOON answers the question by publishing a new analysis of the current digital landscape for citizen engagement and food data sharing. Developed by our partner ITC, the report analyses existing platforms to better understand what works well, what falls short, and where important gaps remain. The final goal? To lay the groundwork for the development of SPOON’s participatory digital toolset.
ITC’s work presents a comparative SWOT analysis of 17 digital tools and platforms, including solutions already used or tested by SPOON partners, as well as broader tools designed to support citizen participation. The publication looks at these tools’ strengths and weaknesses through the lens of usability, inclusivity, data quality, scalability, interoperability, and their ability to support co-creation and feedback loops with citizens.
What emerged is a mixed picture. Many tools are built on strong foundations, such as open-source approaches, modular architectures, and established engagement mechanisms. At the same time, they often lack functionalities tailored to food systems and do not fully support participatory, citizen-driven processes. The analysis also identified risks related to digital exclusion, data governance, and institutional barriers, highlighting the need for ethical, inclusive, and user-centred digital design.
These insights are already shaping the development of the SPOON digital toolset, a collective intelligence platform designed to capture real-world food consumption behaviours to better understand how people plan, buy, prepare, cook, and dispose of food.
By mapping strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats in the existing ecosystem, this work will help us make more informed design choices and move towards digital tools that better support meaningful citizen participation in sustainable food systems.
Download the full publication to explore the analysis.
