The background for the collaboration is the need for a transformation of the global food system to achieve the 1.5-degree target in the Paris Agreement and the UN's Sustainable Development goals.

- In light of our mandate and work towards the UN Food Systems Summit in 2021, EAT sees it as crucial to mobilize different types of actors. The Reitan companies have impressed me by prioritizing sustainability, being early with solutions for animal welfare, combating food waste and reducing plastic use. We look forward to contributing knowledge into their efforts to offer consumers healthy and sustainable choices, said Gunhild Stordalen, EAT's Founder and Executive Chair.

EAT and Reitan Handel's strategic partnership agreement involves the sharing of expertise that will contribute to sustainable solutions. It also has a global dimension, as Reitan Handel’s input will be important for EAT's work with the private sector leading up to the UN Food Systems Summit next fall.

- Reitan Handel will help putting healthy and sustainable food on the agenda both at home and in the world. With a focus on quality food, packaging use, food waste and the role of farmers in the ecosystem, we want to ensure that we do our part and more, to achieve the sustainability goals by 2030, said Ole Robert Reitan, the CEO of Reitan Handel.

- Through our partnership, EAT's science-based solutions for more sustainable food systems can be turned into action. At the same time, we will take part in the global food conversation that EAT invites to, through knowledge sharing and dialogue with other actors about our role in the food system, Reitan said.

It is expected that 2021 will be a crucial year for the world's food system. In October next year, the first UN summit on food will take place, and Gunhild Stordalen has been appointed by UN Deputy Secretary-General Amina Mohammed to lead the work related to creating demand for healthy and sustainable food, and reducing food waste.

- The goal is to build a movement for change that continues to grow long after the summit is over. We already see that the Nordic countries have an opportunity to become world leading in the shift towards healthy and sustainable food. Here, the grocery industry, led by REMA and the Reitan companies, has a central role to play. The increased sales of plant-based protein confirms that consumer’s eating habits are changing, says Stordalen.