How We Learn About Food: Stories from Our Like-a-Pro Living Labs What do we carry with us from our early experiences with food and how might these memories and experiences influence the way we think about eating today? This is what we explored in our recent LIKE-A-PRO Living Labs. In Spring 2025, our fourth and last round of Living Labs took us to various real-life settings in Germany, including a vocational school for dieticians in Ratingen and an food market in Solingen. Across these different environments, one central question guided our conversations: How communication, language, framing, and education shape the way we learn the way we learn about food, including alternative proteins? One of the findings was that food knowledge begins at home. For many participants, the first and most lasting food experiences came from their family – through shared meals, cooking traditions or simple routines around food. Many reported that these early impressions contributed to lasting attitudes toward food as adults. What participants did remember vividly were hands-on experiences: cooking for themselves, growing own vegetables, or learning by doing. The participants shared that these practical activities not only deepened their understanding but also fostered a stronger emotional connection to food. Many expressed the wish that such experiences were a more regular part of school life. Another notable insight emerged around food communication and marketing. When asked which food-related messages they remembered most clearly, many pointed to advertisements from their childhood, especially for sweets, snacks and sugary drinks. Participants recalled these childhood food memories as strong and vivid, often involving jingles, mascots, or bright packaging—highlighting the power of emotional and sensory messaging. This insight raises an important question: could similar techniques be used to make sustainable and healthy food options, such as alternative proteins, more appealing and memorable? One of the main takeaways from exchanges in the Living Labs was that effective food communication should go beyond simply sharing facts. To truly embed sustainable food choices into everyday life, it needs to capture attention, connect with personal experiences, and evoke emotion—speaking to people’s memories and feelings just as those early food advertisements once did. Cumulatively, these insights highlight the importance of the need to rethink food education and communication. In our aim to making sustainable food choices the new norm, we need to engage not only people’s minds but also their emotions, memories, and everyday routines. For questions on the project and living labs across the 11 European countries, please contact Arlind Xhelili.