The Swedish Food Agency has adopted the NNR 2023 reference values for energy and nutrients as the official nutrition recommendations for Sweden. NNR 2023 is also the basis of the Swedish dietary guidelines published in 2025.
What is the NNR?
The Nordic Nutrition Recommendations report describes the dietary habits that are beneficial for our health in both the short and the long term. The most recent edition of the NNR was published in 2023. It is a comprehensive review of the scientific evidence on nutrition and health.
Human health and nutritional needs are the basis of the Nordic nutrition recommendations. But since the food we eat also affects the environment and climate, NNR 2023 has for the first time considered sustainability in its work. The conclusion is that what is good to eat for health is in most cases also good for the environment and climate. NNR 2023 recommends a predominantly plant-based diet, but one where there is also room for meat, fish and dairy products.
Links to NNR 2023
NNR 2023 is available in English and can be downloaded from the Nordic Council of Ministers' website. It contains a description of the methodology and summaries of the scientific basis for the recommendations for each nutrient and food group.
Nordic Nutrition Recommendations 2023
Difference between dietary guidelines and nutritional recommendations
NNR 2023 not only contains recommendations for individual nutrients, but also for food groups. However, NNR 2023 is not the same thing as national dietary guidelines, which recommend what foods and food groups people in a country should eat and in what amounts.
NNR is the scientific basis for what people need to eat to maintain good health without putting unnecessary burden on the environment. Using NNR as a basis, the Nordic countries then go on to develop national dietary guidelines. In this step it is important that country-specific conditions are considered.
At the Swedish Food Agency for example, we consider how people in Sweden eat today, food traditions, common health problems in the population, and how food is produced in Sweden. So even though the scientific basis is the same, the dietary guidelines in the Nordic countries may differ. The Swedish Food Agency's dietary guidelines were updated in 2025 and are based on NNR 2023.
More information about NNR 2023
How was NNR 2023 developed?
Since the 1980s, the Nordic Council of Ministers has supported Nordic cooperation in developing joint nutrition recommendations. The Nordic Council of Ministers finances the work on NNR, together with authorities in the Nordic countries. The NNR is updated approximately every ten years. An extensive evaluation of the latest research is made each time and recommendations are updated if needed.
The five Nordic countries have worked together on this 6th revision of NNR. The work on NNR 2023 was very extensive, with several hundred researchers and experts involved in the review. Leading researchers and experts in each field were involved, mainly from the Nordic countries. The experts were appointed on the basis of their strict scientific qualifications, after a review of conflicts of interest. This is done to avoid the experts being influenced by various interests.
The researchers' conclusions have been presented in around fifty scientific documents. Both the documents and proposals for new nutritional recommendations have been out for consultation, and all consultations have been open for everyone to respond to. Open and transparent work is important and the foundation of a scientific approach.
How and why were environmental aspects included in the NNR?
The Nordic Council of Ministers commissioned the NNR 2023 working group to include sustainability in the recommendations. The reason for this is that all food that is produced and consumed has a major impact on the environment and climate. Globally, food – from farm to fork – accounts for around a third of all greenhouse gas emissions and is one of the biggest causes of loss of nature and biodiversity. The NNR work has focused particularly on how the Nordic and Baltic food systems contribute to these environmental challenges.
The assignment for the NNR 2023 working group included looking at how people’s consumption affects health, the environment, and climate. However, it did not include the effects of the production of food. Since the conditions for food production differ greatly between the different Nordic countries, this is something that must be taken into account on a national level by the authorities in each Nordic country when formulating national dietary guidelines.
Who uses the nutrition recommendations?
The recommendations are primarily used by people who work with food and healthy eating habits in different ways. They are, for example:
- the basis for developing dietary guidelines in the Nordic countries
- the basis for the Swedish Food Agency's guidelines for meals in healthcare, schools, and elderly care
- the basis for the criteria in the Keyhole Label
- a tool for evaluating the intake of various nutrients by groups or populations.
