ReviewFrontiers in nutrition2025
Hidden hunger in Europe: a review on determinants, fragmented policy responses, and implementation barriers.
Review in Frontiers in nutrition, 2025. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 2 papers.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
2 citing papers in PubMed.
- Choline and Its Companions: Inter-Related Roles of Choline and B Vitamins in Fetal Development and Offspring Health.Nutrients · 2026Review
- Development and Temporal Validation of Explainable Machine Learning Models for Predicting Vitamin B12 Deficiency Using Routine Laboratory Analytes.Diagnostics (Basel, Switzerland) · 2026Article
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
8 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
Despite significant improvements in food security and healthcare, micronutrient deficiencies - or "hidden hunger" - remain a widespread and under-recognized public health issue across Europe. These deficiencies impair metabolic, cognitive, and immune functions, and are linked to non-communicable diseases and increased morbidity in an aging European population. This policy review, undertaken within the European Union (EU)-funded Zero Hidden Hunger EU project, examines the demographic, socioeconomic, and geographical drivers of micronutrient deficiencies in Europe and evaluates existing national and EU-level policy responses. Vulnerable populations, including children, women of reproductive age, older adults, low-income households, and those living in low-UV regions, face disproportionately high risks due to intersecting biological, environmental, and social factors. The review also identifies substantial variation in national fortification strategies, revealing fragmented regulatory frameworks and inconsistent implementation. While EU legislation offers a harmonized structure for voluntary fortification, its flexibility has enabled broad national divergence, limiting the coherence and impact of public health efforts. Evidence from national policies illustrates both the potential and the shortcomings of current approaches. This review calls for more equity-oriented, mandatory, and evidence-based public health strategies, to address micronutrient malnutrition, including fortification, supported by comprehensive nutrition education and social protection measures. Initiatives such as the Zero Hidden Hunger EU project represent a critical opportunity for participatory policy co-creation, aiming to close data gaps and advance more inclusive and sustainable nutrition policies across Europe.
Indexed as
Identifiers
What Socratic holds
Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the Socratic graph.