[Brussels, 9 February 2026] — MNI is pleased to inform stakeholders and partners about the launch of a new white paper titled Towards Closing Inequity Gaps in Access to Medical Nutrition: Understanding the Barriers. This comprehensive report examines the findings of an extensive survey conducted across ten European countries, highlighting the urgent need to address inequities in access to medical nutrition.
The paper reveals significant barriers at all levels of healthcare systems that prevent patients from receiving the nutritional care they need. These barriers span policy, clinical practice, education, and reimbursement, underscoring that each stakeholder group — including clinicians, policymakers, and health system leaders — has a crucial role to play in improving access and outcomes. “We cannot tackle these challenges in isolation — achieving equitable access to medical nutrition demands collaboration across the entire healthcare community,” said Elena Miceli, interim Director of MNI: “Each stakeholder group has a crucial role to play in improving this situation, from clinicians to policymakers and beyond, as we demonstrated in our white paper.”
In recognition of the importance of these findings, MNI is delighted to announce that the abstract from the white paper has been accepted for presentation at the European Congress of Hospital Pharmacists — taking place 18–20 March 2026 in Barcelona, Spain. The work will be featured as a poster during the congress, bringing this critical conversation to an audience of hospital pharmacy professionals and multidisciplinary peers from across Europe.
The white paper reveals these shortcomings:
🔹Malnutrition screening is inconsistent and so many at risk patients go undetected
🔹 Healthcare nutrition training gaps: most countries report expertise varies widely, often concentrated in hospitals
🔹 Uneven reimbursement: Even in countries where medical nutrition is reimbursed, coverage still depends on care setting, condition and age, creating unequal access.
This analysis highlights that – despite strong clinical and economic evidence of the important role of nutritional care, including for cancer – access remains limited and inequitable. This is a key health policy gap that needs to be addressed.
The importance of tackling inequities in access to medical nutrition is gaining attention at both clinical and policy levels. As highlighted by MEP Vytenis Andriukaitis, disease-related malnutrition is a serious public health challenge:
“The evidence shows that disease-related malnutrition is a widespread, yet preventable health challenge that worsens patient outcomes, drives up healthcare costs and deepens inequalities across health systems. We must adopt standardised policies to ensure systematic malnutrition screening and fair access to nutritional care across the EU,” stated MEP Vytenis Andriukaitis, reinforcing the urgent need for coherent policy action and shared commitment to patient‑centred care.
Medical nutrition represents “a cost‑effective intervention that delivers both clinical and financial benefits” and, given its proven positive effects on patients’ clinical outcomes and quality of life, should not be viewed as treatment only for a few. Rather, its systematic inclusion in health policy and care pathways across Europe can help ensure that every patient receives timely, appropriate nutritional care as part of comprehensive, multidisciplinary treatment.
There is growing momentum to ensure nutrition is embedded within broader EU health policies, including Europe’s Beating Cancer Plan and more. “Since the launch of Europe’s Beating Cancer Plan, MNI has been actively advocating for nutritional care to be recognised as an integral part of cancer treatment, support and follow‑up care — engaging in public consultations and multi‑stakeholder advocacy to ensure nutrition is not overlooked in implementation,” explained Elena Miceli: “We will continue these efforts, because strengthening nutrition care throughout the cancer care continuum for all patients is essential to improve outcomes and reduce inequalities.”