Good Food Nation plan: initial monitoring framework

1. Introduction

Policy Context

The Scottish Government published a new food and drink policy in 2014 - ‘Becoming a Good Food Nation’.^[1] This set out a vision for Scotland to be “a Good Food Nation, where people from every walk of life take pride and pleasure in, and benefit from, the food they produce, buy, cook, serve, and eat each day”.

To realise this ambition, the Scottish Ministers introduced framework legislation in the form of the Good Food Nation (Scotland) Act 2022 (“the Act”). Under the Act, the Scottish Ministers are required to produce a national Good Food Nation Plan (“the Plan”) which sets out the Government’s main outcomes in relation to food-related issues and how it intends to achieve them.

At the heart of the national Good Food Nation Plan are the six overarching Good Food Nation Outcomes. The Outcomes do not describe the current situation in Scotland; instead, they are a description of the Good Food Nation we are aiming to build. The Outcomes are:

• Outcome 1: The food environment in Scotland enables people to eat well. Everyone benefits from reliable and dignified access to safe, nutritious, affordable, enjoyable, sustainable and age-appropriate food.
• Outcome 2: Scotland’s food system is sustainable and contributes to a flourishing natural environment on our land and in our waters. It supports our net zero and climate adaptation ambitions and plays an important role in protecting and improving animal health and welfare and in restoring and regenerating biodiversity.
• Outcome 3: Scotland’s food environment and wider food system enables and promotes a physically and mentally healthy population. This leads to the prevention of, and a reduction in, diet-related conditions.
• Outcome 4: Our food and drink sector is prosperous, diverse, innovative, and vital to national and local economic and social wellbeing. It is key to making Scotland food secure and food resilient, and creates and sustains jobs and businesses underpinned by fair work standards throughout food supply chains.
• Outcome 5 : People and communities are empowered to participate in, and shape, their food system. Scotland has a thriving food culture with a population who are educated about good and sustainable food.
• Outcome 6: Decisions we make in Scotland contribute positively to local and global food systems transformation. Scotland actively engages in learning and exchanging knowledge and best practice internationally.

The Act sets out a requirement that the Plan must include indicators or other measures by which progress towards achieving the Good Food Nation Outcomes set out in the Plan can be assessed.

The first Good Food Nation Plan was laid before the Scottish Parliament in December 2025. Part 3 of the Plan sets out the indicators which have been selected to assess progress towards achieving the Plan’s Outcomes.

Purpose of this document

This document provides the evidence underpinning the initial indicator framework for monitoring progress towards the six strategic Outcomes set out in the first National Good Food Nation Plan and supplements the information provided in Part 3 of the First Good Food Nation Plan, laid before the Scottish Parliament in December 2025.^[2]

All data contained in this document was up to date as of 28 November 2025. This was a practical cut off required for the timely publication of this document.