Feature Review on Food Security and Sustainability

A special issue of Foods (ISSN 2304-8158). This special issue belongs to the section "Food Security and Sustainability".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: 5 December 2024 | Viewed by 938

Special Issue Editor


E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Department of Food Science and Technology, University of Peloponnese, 24100 Antikalamos, Greece
Interests: food technology; food engineering; food safety; food quality; extra virgin olive oil; mycotoxins; fermented foods
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

This Special Issue aims to collect high-quality review papers focused on food security, safety, and sustainability. We welcome proposals for review articles dealing with sustainable diets, which could play a key role as a method of maintaining nutritional well-being and health while ensuring sustainability for future food security and eradicating malnutrition.

Articles are expected to address the importance of sustainability in preserving the environment, natural resources, and agro-ecosystems (and thus the overlying social system). An emphasis will be placed on articles that focus on food insecurity, which might become a serious global problem, affecting biodiversity (im)balance and ecosystem wellbeing while limiting human existence. Different strategies employed by multiple nations and European Union policymakers rely on the support of novel/smart agriculture, the recycling of resources, and the development of initiatives covering the entire nexus of water–energy–food, focusing on the introduction of good practices for sustainable use of natural resources and the realization of food security. Identification of the interactions of water, energy, and food as a single system in the assessment of human and natural environment conditions is one of these strategies. The inclusion of new dynamic technologies to secure global food security is imperative.

Ethics is very significant in this dimension; hence, it should be addressed.

Sustainable developments to secure the resilience of food systems should also be addressed, taking into account of sustainable agro-economical practices needed to provide safe and healthy foods for optimal nutrition.

Prof. Dr. Theodoros Varzakas
Guest Editor

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Foods is an international peer-reviewed open access semimonthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2900 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

Keywords

  • global food security
  • food safety
  • sustainability
  • nutrition and diets
  • environment
  • energy and food
  • ethics
  • novel and smart agricultural systems
  • biodiversity
  • labelling

Benefits of Publishing in a Special Issue

  • Ease of navigation: Grouping papers by topic helps scholars navigate broad scope journals more efficiently.
  • Greater discoverability: Special Issues support the reach and impact of scientific research. Articles in Special Issues are more discoverable and cited more frequently.
  • Expansion of research network: Special Issues facilitate connections among authors, fostering scientific collaborations.
  • External promotion: Articles in Special Issues are often promoted through the journal's social media, increasing their visibility.
  • e-Book format: Special Issues with more than 10 articles can be published as dedicated e-books, ensuring wide and rapid dissemination.

Further information on MDPI's Special Issue polices can be found here.

Published Papers (1 paper)

Order results
Result details
Select all
Export citation of selected articles as:

Review

30 pages, 1336 KiB  
Review
The Policy of Compulsory Large-Scale Food Fortification in Sub-Saharan Africa
by Victoria Bell, Ana Rita Rodrigues, Jorge Ferrão, Theodoros Varzakas and Tito H. Fernandes
Foods 2024, 13(15), 2438; https://doi.org/10.3390/foods13152438 - 1 Aug 2024
Viewed by 812
Abstract
Food fortification with micronutrients was initially justified in developed countries by a lack of availability of micronutrients in staple crops, mainly due to soil exhaustion. However, in Sub-Saharan arable lands, soil fatigue is not predominant, and communities consume mostly home-grown, organic, non-processed crops. [...] Read more.
Food fortification with micronutrients was initially justified in developed countries by a lack of availability of micronutrients in staple crops, mainly due to soil exhaustion. However, in Sub-Saharan arable lands, soil fatigue is not predominant, and communities consume mostly home-grown, organic, non-processed crops. Sub-Saharan food systems are nevertheless deeply entwined with food insecurity, driver of illnesses. Family production can promote subsistence, food stability, and self-sufficiency, the main SSA setback being the vicious cycle of poverty and the lack of dietary variety, contributing to malnutrition. Poverty reduction and women’s education are significant strategies for reducing child and adolescent undernourishment. Fortification of foods consumed daily by individuals makes sense and can minimize, if not entirely, eliminate deficiencies. Compulsory mass fortification of foods in Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) with single micronutrients is, however, controversial since they work in synergy among each other and with the food matrix, for optimal absorption and metabolism. Since the causes of malnutrition are many, caused by diverse, unequal, and unjust food distribution, interrelated with political, social, cultural, or economic factors, education status of the population, season and climatic changes, and effectiveness of nutrition programs, just food fortification cannot solve the composite of all these elements. Further, compulsory fortification is excessive, unproductive, and likely harmful to human health, while many challenges remain in assessing the quality of available premixes. Furthermore, aiming at dietary diversification is the best approach of increasing trace element intake from commonly accessible and easily available food sources. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Feature Review on Food Security and Sustainability)
Show Figures

Figure 1

Back to TopTop