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Feature Review on Food Security and Sustainability
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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 3434

Special Issue Editor

Prof. Dr. Theodoros Varzakas

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

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

Published Papers (2 papers)

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21 pages, 6105 KiB  
Article
Evolution of Food Trade Networks from a Comparative Perspective: An Examination of China, the United States, Russia, the European Union, and African Countries
by Wei Hu, Dongling Xie, Yilin Le, Ningning Fu, Jianzhen Zhang, Shanggang Yin and Yun Deng
Foods 2024, 13(18), 2897; https://doi.org/10.3390/foods13182897 - 12 Sep 2024
Viewed by 837
Abstract
In the intricate landscape of the global food system, a nuanced understanding of dynamic evolution patterns and driving mechanisms of food trade network is essential for advancing insights into the African food trade and maintaining the food security of Africa. This paper constructs [...] Read more.
In the intricate landscape of the global food system, a nuanced understanding of dynamic evolution patterns and driving mechanisms of food trade network is essential for advancing insights into the African food trade and maintaining the food security of Africa. This paper constructs a framework for analyzing the food trade network from a comparative perspective by comparing and analyzing the evolution of food trade networks in China, the United States, Russia, the European Union, and African countries. The development trend of food trade between China, Russia, the United States, the European Union, and African countries is relatively good. China, the United States, Russia, and the European Union export far more food to African countries than they import, and bilateral food trade plays an important role in alleviating food supply shortages in Africa. The food trade networks between China, the United States, Russia, the European Union, and African countries exhibit a butterfly-shaped structure centered in Africa, and the overall intensity of bilateral trade linkages is gradually increasing. France has the greatest control over the food trade network between China, the United States, Russia, the European Union, and African countries, and the influence of the United States on the food trade network between China, the United States, Russia, the European Union, and African countries is increasing. China’s independence in the food trade network between China, the United States, Russia, the European Union, and African countries is enhanced, but its control ability is limited. The impact of differences in total population, differences in food production, and geographical borders on the trade network between China, the United States, the European Union, and African countries tends to decrease, while the influence of differences in the proportion of agricultural employment, differences in the arable land available for food production, and institutional distance tends to increase. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Feature Review on Food Security and Sustainability)
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Review

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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
Cited by 1 | Viewed by 2269
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)
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