Abstract
Food citizenship (FC) offers a critical lens for reimagining food systems and advancing more sustainable, democratic forms of governance. Despite its normative appeal, FC remains conceptually underdeveloped and empirically untested. This study develops and validates a conceptual framework for understanding the psychological dimensions of food citizenship and operationalises it using standard psychometric procedures. We hypothesised that a sense of responsibility, personal values, food system-related knowledge, and food citizenship behaviours constitute four interrelated facets of FC multidimensional construct. Through an expert review study, lay cognitive interviews, and an online survey (
N
= 400), we identified four empirically distinct yet connected dimensions:
citizen responsibilities, behaviours directed toward food system change, behaviours to reduce food waste,
and
a person valuing the sustainable food system
. Each dimension captures a specific aspect of how individuals engage with food citizenship across contexts. By operationalising food citizenship as a measurable construct, this study advances understanding of its psychological foundations and highlights its policy relevance as both an individual characteristic and a mechanism for promoting food system change. It offers a means to assess public engagement with food systems, allowing policymakers to track shifts over time and across demographic contexts, and to inform the development of policy interventions.