About Us
The Mediterranean Foods Alliance (MFA)
We created the Oldways Mediterranean Foods Alliance (MFA) to help consumers and families bring the gold-standard Mediterranean diet into their daily meals more frequently and more easily.
The healthy Mediterranean Diet resonates with consumers: they've read about it and seen it on television, they know it's healthy, they want to “eat Mediterranean” more often -- but they’re not always sure, in their everyday lives, how to put it into their market baskets or onto their tables.
The Mediterranean Foods Alliance is a one-stop Oldways consumer education program guiding consumers in how to shop for, how to prepare, and how to enjoy the healthy and delicious foods, drinks and dishes of the Mediterranean diet.
The MFA brings the Mediterranean diet to life with food, drinks and recipes for today’s lifestyles. Its programs are designed to help consumers, journalists, chefs, retailers, and health professionals:
(1) Understand the healthy simplicity of a Mediterranean way of eating
(2) Learn how to follow this healthy eating pattern on a daily basis
(3) Learn how to find Mediterranean products in the marketplace.
Companies that manufacture, import, and sell healthy Mediterranean products underwrite some of the MFA's educational programs.A number of these companies also apply to use the easily-recognizable Oldways Med Mark on their qualifying products that meet the program's strict usage requirements.
As a result, the Med Mark packaging symbol helps consumers find healthy Mediterranean diet products in grocery stores. The MFA programs and resources include:
• Weekly Mediterranean “Fresh Friday” email blast with recipes
• Nationwide Supermarket Education program
• Online Mediterranean recipe collection
• Mediterranean Diet Kit for health professionals
• Mediterranean Diet Pyramid reproducible graphic
• Med Mark packaging symbol
• 7-day menus (Spring, Summer, Fall and Winter)
• Health information about the Mediterranean diet
• Summaries of key scientific studies on the Mediterranean Diet
• Health information and recipes from MFA members (companies
that support MFA activities)
• Mediterranean Month celebrated each May
MFA Timeline
1990 - Oldways founded by K. Dun Gifford
1993 - First Oldways' Conference on the Mediterranean Diet held in Cambridge, MA
1993 - Mediterranean Diet pyramid released
1998 - 5th Anniversary Mediterranean Diet Conference held in Cambridge, MA
2000 - International Mediterranean Diet Conference held in London
2003 - 10th Anniversary Mediterranean Diet Conference held in Boston, MA
2007 - Med Mark symbol introduced by Oldways
2008 - Med Mark expanded into the Mediterranean Foods Alliance
2008 - 150th product registered to use the Med Mark
2008 - MFA's Nationwide Med Diet supermarket campaign is launched
2008 - 15th Anniversary Mediterranean Diet Conference held November 16-18 in Cambridge, MA