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Future Foods: Innovations Addressing Global Challenges in Health, Nutrition, Sustainability, and Ethics

A special issue of Nutrients (ISSN 2072-6643). This special issue belongs to the section "Nutrition and Public Health".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: 5 February 2025 | Viewed by 888

Special Issue Editors


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Guest Editor
Department of Experimental and Clinical Medicine, University of Florence, Florence, Italy
Interests: microbiota-immunity axis; autoimmunity; cancers; inflammation; T cells; micro and nanoplastic effects on human
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals
Department of Experimental and Clinical Medicine, University of Florence, Florence, Italy
Interests: microbiome; diet; microbial metabolites; inflammatory response; immunology
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

By 2050, the worldwide population will reach 9 billion, further increasing the already substantial global malnutrition burden, compounded by the anticipated ongoing decline in food production due to climate change. Complex factors, such as limited resources, environmental degradation, and public health concerns, will hinder food supplies and nutritional wellbeing. As a result, it is imperative to reassess food production approaches by integrating technological advancements, scientific exploration, and insights from human health sciences. In this context, future foods (FFs), considered as non-customary, sustainable, and nutritional items, have the primary goal to address the abovementioned diet challenges with respect to human health, safety, and environmental. Biotechnology and genetic engineering, vertical, hydroponic, and insect farming, as well as meat cultivation and alternative food production technologies (3D food printing) have been recently implemented for the production of FFs. However, it is relevant to evaluate FFs’ impact on human health; FFs may affect the risk, occurrence, and symptoms of numerous diseases, but more trials are needed to assess their potential long-term benefits/damages. FFs may also provide essential nutrients in non-customary ways, potentially addressing nutritional deficiencies, thus promoting overall wellbeing. Therefore, it is imperative to assess the safety and quality of FFs through comparative studies with traditional foods. FFs should minimize environmental impact through sustainable production approaches, decreasing land, water, and energy usage. Therefore, it is critical to evaluate the cost–benefit analysis for FFs’ production. Food traditions, societal values, and the fair treatment of resources are non-negligible factors that may raise ethical concerns regarding the adoption of FFs. Considering all of this, we welcome different types of manuscript submissions, including original research articles and up-to-date reviews (systematic reviews and meta-analyses).

Dr. Amedeo Amedei
Dr. Edda Russo
Dr. Elena Niccolai
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

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Keywords

  • future foods
  • nutrition
  • human health
  • sustainability
  • malnutrition

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Published Papers (1 paper)

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Research

19 pages, 3847 KiB  
Article
Towards Understanding the Motivators of Sustainable Consumer Behavior—Validation of the Food Eco-Guilt Scale
by Brigitta Unger-Plasek, Ágoston Temesi and Zoltán Lakner
Nutrients 2024, 16(21), 3695; https://doi.org/10.3390/nu16213695 - 30 Oct 2024
Viewed by 546
Abstract
Background/Objectives: The growing concern about the environmental impacts of consumption has led to the emergence of so-called “eco-guilt”—a psychological construct reflecting the guilt felt by individuals about the environmental consequences of their choices, which plays a prominent role among the factors influencing pro-environmental [...] Read more.
Background/Objectives: The growing concern about the environmental impacts of consumption has led to the emergence of so-called “eco-guilt”—a psychological construct reflecting the guilt felt by individuals about the environmental consequences of their choices, which plays a prominent role among the factors influencing pro-environmental behavior. Although eco-guilt has already emerged in other service sectors, such as tourism, and general scales exist to measure it, no such scale exists in the context of food consumption. The aim of this research is to develop and validate a scale to measure eco-guilt related to food consumption. Methods: To create the scale in an objective way, we used the Sustainable Development Goals as a framework. Data were collected from university students; a questionnaire was completed online by 367 respondents. The responses were analyzed from several different perspectives, using multiple methods following the principle of triangulation. For the data analysis, the Psych and Mokken packages of R software (version 4.4.0) were used. Results: The constructed scale was based on 13 items. An overview of the reliability of the scale was provided using various indicators (e.g., Cronbach’s α = 0.86, ωh = 0.63, ωH asymptotic = 0.71, and ωt = 0.89). Based on the analyses, we proposed a reduced form with nine items for the measurement of food-related eco-guilt. Conclusions: The results of this research provide a scale to help understand what motivates consumers to make more sustainable consumption choices. Moreover, the scale is relevant to future research focused on understanding how guilt influences future food choices. Full article
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