The main objective of this thesis was to analyse from an economic and a public health perspective how the food industry (packaged food and beverage manufacturers, quick-service restaurants and supermarkets) influences what foods we acquire, prepare and consume. This influence takes place each time that we interact with the physical, economic, political and socio-cultural aspects of the environment surrounding us, collectively called the food environments. Examples of such interactions are the advertisements on TV, the sweets at supermarket checkouts and the higher prices of healthier products compared to less healthy alternatives. Other activities take place behind closed doors. Think of lobbying, campaigns to influence the public opinion, mergers, acquisitions and how companies position themselves on the market. These are all activities which can provide companies with the ability to structure food environments to suit their own private interests.Within the economic perspective, it was assessed how market concentration and diversity across Europe affects food environments. It was found that the major food and beverage manufacturers were similar across European countries with moderately to highly concentrated product markets. The latter may be of concern as this thesis found that market concentration significantly predicted an increase in the proportion of sales derived from (less healthy) ultra-processed foods. Based on the similarity of food and beverage manufacturers across Europe this thesis suggested that food and beverage markets may benefit from being approached as homogenous across Europe from a public health point of view. This would facilitate the implementation of nutrition policies for the industry and reduce the administrative burden accompanying policy development, implementation and monitoring. The picture observed for quick-service restaurants and supermarkets was different from the one for food and beverage manufacturers. Comparable to the latter, the biggest quick-service restaurants were ...