Since the early 2000s nutrition has increasingly established itself in various European countries as a major element of public health policies. The launching at governmental level of the Programme National Nutrition Santé in France in 2001, and of the National Action Plan “Gesond iessen, méi bewegen” in Luxembourg in 2006 has generated a number of public health campaigns and the dissemination of a series of nutritional recommendations. However, while these policies were developed concomitantly in numerous European countries, the work on their institutional implementation, but also the appropriation of nutritional recommendations by individuals, has rarely been put in European comparison, even less so in the field of social sciences and sociology. Based on a mixed-methodology combining an institutional analysis of how national models and on two field surveys with in-depth interviews, this contribution will examine the political implementation and societal appropriation of nutritional recommendations in two European countries, France and Luxembourg. Based on this comparison, the paper explores the following research question: in which way – and by which social categories – are the recommendations taken in and put into practice, and if so, which appropriation processes and interpretations occur? Do the social, societal and cultural differences between Luxembourg and France (as well as within them), in terms of standard of living, cultural values and dissemination of norms, account for differentiated appropriations of dietary incentives? Which socio-cultural factors and everyday constraints favour a frontal internalisation of dietary recommendations, as opposed to a more creative appropriation or even a critical avoidance? By means of the recommendations issued in the framework of public health, we pose the more general question of how and why dietary norms are perceived and integrated by individuals. This contribution will highlight that, in France as in Luxembourg, these two nutritional policies show striking ...