Feeding the world into the future – food and nutrition security: the role of food science and technology^†

† This manuscript is based on a presentation at the 8th World Conference of the Global Confederation of Higher Education Associations for Agriculture and Life Sciences (GCHERA), Holy Spirit University of Kaslik (USEK), Lebanon, 25–26 June 2015.

ABSTRACT

By mid-century, the world population will surpass 9 billion people, meaning higher demand for available food, water, arable land and environmental impacts. Food safety issues, nutrition deficiencies, postharvest losses, regulation inconsistencies and consumer attitudes are all striking challenges which must be met in maintaining food security and sustainability. Possible solutions include advancements in food processing technologies, nanotechnology, innovative food formulations and the use of genomic approaches manifested in examples such as alternative protein sources, insect flour, nutrigenomics, 3D food printing, biomimicry, food engineering and merging technology. International organizations like the International Union of Food Science and Technology also play important roles in securing the world’s food supplies by providing expertise through their respective country memberships. The present review addresses the food science and technology roles in meeting current challenges and investigates possible solutions to feed the world in the near future.

KEYWORDS:

• Food and nutrition security
• food sustainability
• food science/technology
• emerging technologies

Introduction

The World Health Organization defines food security as ‘when all people at all times have access to sufficient, safe and nutritious food to maintain a healthy and active life’. Every year, the world is producing more than enough food to feed its entire population, yet food security remains elusive with hunger, a continuing epidemic, especially in developing countries (FAO 2015a). Countless tons of foods are wasted through the supply chain from postharvest losses to manufacturing and retail spoilage, thereby directly threatening food security and often resulting in increased global food prices. In many developing countries, people simply cannot afford to purchase enough food to sustain a healthy diet (United Nations 2014); therefore, effective actions are required.

It is projected that by 2050, the total world population will reach 9 billion (The World Bank 2016) and with the accompanying growing demand for more food, many challenges need to be addressed concerning food sustainability. In the absence of technological and environmental policy interventions, continuous global population growth will lead to greater water usage across the world as well as increasingly significant environmental impacts, the need for increasing agricultural productivity and the need of more arable land use throughout the developing world, especially in northern and central South America, sub-Saharan Africa and Southeast Asia (Dietrich 2014). Aside from these challenges, there are also food safety concerns, postharvest losses, regulatory inconsistencies and consumer acceptance toward novel discoveries; therefore, there is an urgent need to address these challenges. At present, it is likely that the adoption of current and future technologies combined with intelligent policy implementation will be the effective and sustainable path to solving food security challenges (Barretto 2013; Charlebois 2015). There is reason for optimism in food security in that the general effectiveness of such an approach over multiple decades in a large developing nation has been recently confirmed (Barretto et al. 2013).

The objective of this review is to discuss the current challenges and/or opportunities in food/nutrition security and food sustainability while maintaining the food supply chain. Examples of products/technologies, future directions and global organizations involved in addressing these challenges will be discussed.

Current challenges

Currently, the demand of increased food, feed and fiber sources for feeding the future is a major concern. The ability to expand and keep a sustainable global agri-food system to meet these demands can be severely limited by various risks and challenges, some of which are discussed below.

Increasing global population

The increase in global population, in combination with climate change, poses a serious threat to food security as arable land becomes increasingly limited. From 1980 to 2000, the total global population grew from 4.4 billion to 6.1 billion, which was accompanied by a 50% increase in the world food production (FAO 2009). Since 2000, the global population has increased by approximately 2% every year, reaching a total of 7.3 billion in 2014 (The World Bank 2016). By 2050, the world population is projected to reach 9.7 billion (United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs 2015). The continuous growth of global population will make a significant impact on the environment, which in turn further affects the capacity for food production directly via changes in land availability and suitability for agriculture, and indirectly via interruption of volatile organic carbon-driven cloud formation (Jardine et al. 2015; Joutsensaari et al. 2015).

Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) predicts that most of the population growth will take place on urbanized lands in the world’s developing countries (2009). It has been shown that, globally, enough food is produced to feed the entire population; however, this food supply cannot be adequately distributed in every continent, especially in developing countries due to socioeconomical hindrance, harsh climate and the absence of social safety nets (FAO 2009). Malnutrition and hunger are two existing and pertinent issues in these developing countries. With the continuous increase in population, it is projected that even more people will suffer from poor nutrition, especially children (FAO 2009), therefore becoming more susceptible to chronic diseases and possibly death.

Impact: climate change

Climate change refers to raising atmospheric temperatures, elevated carbon dioxide levels and precipitation changes, which will all affect agriculture and food production (FAO 2009), causing draught and increased temperature extremes in many food production areas. Central to all climate predictions is the accuracy and precision of quantifying climate sensitivity. When considering the relationship between greenhouse gas emissions and global temperature predictions, climate science continually refines and improves fundamental aspects undergirding the modeling ensembles used for characterizing climate change (Brown et al. 2015; Fasullo et al. 2015; Franzke et al. 2015). Although it is generally agreed that the global mean surface temperature is likely to increase over the next several decades, it is critically important that those concerned with food security acknowledge and respect the uncertainty involved in predictions of medium and long-term climate indices as these are usually ignored or ill-considered by both climate and social scientists when assessing the outcomes and impacts of climate change (Burke et al. 2015). A unique exigency posed to those predicting climate change impacts on the agri-food sector is the disastrous consequence of people going hungry or even starving needlessly. The potential exists for over-focusing on particular outcomes (eg the gravest, extreme temperature increase scenarios) at the expense of preparing and planning for a broader range of future climate trends. Additionally, the application of global climate change predictions to food security is further complicated by the proven non-uniform regional climate trends that occur within an overall changing climate (Medhaug & Drange 2015). This last point is critically important in terms of food security globally in that evidence-based decisions must be made regionally if crop and nutritional policies and practices are to account for changes in climate. That is, making food security decisions based on global climate predictions could be a liability, not an asset, due to variances in macro- and micro-regional climate changes.

Keeping the above in mind, in the context of increasing global temperatures, extreme heat stress can be disastrous for crop productivity. Projected changes in the frequency and severity of extreme climatic events are expected to negatively impact crop yields and global food production (de Gorter et al. 2013), particularly at lower latitudes (Porter et al. 2014). At an international scale, de Gorter et al. (2013) were the first to quantify the global crop model, observing that the impact of extreme heat stress on maize and soybean dramatically caused the crop yield to decline and suggesting that climate change will have severe impacts on food production, food availability, stability of food supplies, access to food and food utilization (FAO 2009). Climate change is more than a risk; it is a challenge that needs immediate and effective actions. Developing countries are in the need of new solutions to enhance mitigation and adaptation to climate change. Food prices are predicted to rise radically from the impact of climate change, resulting in unaffordable consumables and a heavy reliance of food imports (FAO 2009), especially in the underdeveloped countries (FAO 2016a).

During the December 2015 United Nations Conference on Climate Change held in Paris, 195 countries agreed to adopt the first universal climate agreement to combat climate change (COP21 2015). This agreement was set to limit global warming to less than 2°C compared to pre-industrial levels in the twenty-first century. To reach this goal, it was estimated that global greenhouse gas emissions must be reduced by 40–70% by 2050 and carbon neutrality needs to be reached by the end of the century (COP21 2015) which could improve the sustainability of food production.

Potable water shortage

Water scarcity is becoming a more prominent issue due to its heavy usage for domestic, agriculture, industry and other economic activities in reversing poverty and food security (United Nations 2014). As an indication of the intensive use of water, consider that 3500 liters of water is required to produce 1 kilo of rice, 15,000 liters of water is required in farming to produce 1 kilo of beef and 140 liters of water is required to produce 1 cup of coffee (United Nations 2014). Over the past century, water usage is growing at more than twice the rate of population increase. Geographically, water is unevenly distributed globally and a large amount is being wasted, polluted and unsustainably managed (FAO 2009). It was reported that approximately one-fifth of the world’s population lives in areas of water scarcity and approximately another quarter of the world’s population experience water shortage; combined with climate change, two-thirds of the world’s total population could be facing inadequate water supplies (United Nations 2014). Thus, proper water management and expanded access to fresh water are required in meeting the needs in food production and agricultural practices.

Loss of arable land, urbanization

Loss of arable land and urbanization are correlated with an increase in the global population (PAI 2011). The demand for more food production requires additional land reserves to be converted to arable land. This is not always desirable due to unevenly distributed development which may encounter lack of access and infrastructure for limited usage and important ecological functions such as biodiversity (FAO 2009). The challenge is to not only produce more food but also to make more food available for the growing population.

In addition to food and animal feed, biofuel is another resource that requires arable land. Biofuel refers to energy fuels obtained from a process of biological carbon fixation (Elbehri et al. 2013) and was first created in the hope of reducing fossil fuel and greenhouse gas emissions. Biofuel accounts for approximately 2% of the world’s consumption of transport fuels and is a potential risk for food security. FAO projects that the global biofuel production may reach 192 billion liters by 2018 and is expected to increase thereafter (FAO 2009). The use of biofuel puts pressure on food commodity prices as less food sources will be available; this makes it unaffordable in many underdeveloped areas (FAO 2009; de Gorter et al. 2013). Thus, the vast production and utilization of biofuel adversely effect food security and have implications on future energy, the environment and agricultural commodity prices.

Food waste and postharvest losses

Every year, approximately 1.3 billion tons of food is lost or wasted globally throughout the supply chain, ie agricultural practices, postharvest handling and storage, processing, distribution and during food preparation (FWF 2013). This totals to over one-third of the food produced worldwide (Scott-Thomas 2013; United Nations 2014; FAO 2015a); meanwhile, over 870 million people go hungry every day (FAO 2016b). Food loss also means that water used to produce the food is wasted, resulting in further economic costs. Thus, the development of environmentally friendly crop protection strategies is of utmost importance to agri-food business, food security and the food supply chain. FAO created a toolkit to teach the general public how to reduce, reuse and recycle waste (FAO 2016b) with the intent of reducing food waste and postharvest losses.

Food-related issues

Food safety

With the increase in globalization, a trend for food production, distribution and consumption has been observed, ie the transportation of food products and its raw ingredients around the world for consumption and/or further processing (Chiesal et al. 2012), making food safety a pertinent issue in assuring the health of the global consumer (Global and Local 2005). Over the past decade, numerous food safety-related issues have raised consumer concerns: for example, the melamine-tainted milk powder scandal in China which harmed thousands of babies and led to many cases of death in 2008 (GFSF 2011); the E.coli outbreak in bean sprouts in Germany which killed 29 people and caused approximately 3000 illness (The Telegraph 2011) and the horse meat scandal in Europe in 2013 (EC 2016). Foodborne illnesses caused by microbial infections can range from mild to life-threatening depending on the source of contamination (Global and Local 2005). Currently, many countries do not have established surveillance or food traceability systems to identify affected products. Foodborne illness especially targets the ‘at risk’ populations who have higher sensitivity or are more likely to be exposed than the general population; and those living in developing countries. It is also a primary cause of malnutrition and for burdening the economy through medical care and legal investigations (Global and Local 2005). On the other hand, it is simply too expensive to expect zero tolerance of pathogenic bacteria in food products (Schwartz 2015), and importantly, increased costs of food further threaten food and nutrition security disproportionately for economically disadvantaged people.

Malnutrition

FAO defines malnutrition as ‘an abnormal physiological condition caused by inadequate, unbalanced or excessive consumption of macronutrients and/or micronutrients’. Malnutrition also includes under-nutrition, over-nutrition and micronutrient deficiency (FAOUN 2015). Malnutrition can be caused by food insecurity or the over-consumption of energy-dense but nutrient-poor foods. Undernourishment is an outcome of undernutrition and is defined as ‘the state of consistently consuming less energy in the form of protein and calories, to maintain a weight appropriate for height, and for mild activity’ (FAOUN 2015). Over the past decade, undernourishment decreased by 167 million people globally, leaving an estimated number of 793 million still undernourished. The Millennium Development Goal in fighting world hunger hoped to half the population that suffered from undernourishment or bring the affected number to below 5% from 1990 to 1992 and 2015. The undernourished population represented 23.3% in 1990–1992 of the total population decreased to 12.9% in 2015 (FAOUN 2015). It was concluded that economic growth and social protection systems had key roles in achieving the Millennium Development Goal. Organizations such as the World Food Programme took part in fighting malnutrition and built food distribution structures in over 70 countries worldwide (WFP 2016). The food distribution improved one’s dietary status with either more calories or micronutrients. These actions were critical in reversing malnutrition, especially in developing countries.

Obesity

Malnutrition can be a contributing factor for obesity as the over-consumption of nutrient-poor and calorie-dense food leads to excessive unhealthy weight gain. According to the World Health Organization, obesity has doubled from 1980 to 2014 reaching 600 million adults, which represents 13% of the world’s population (WHO 2015). Strikingly, the number of overweight or obese children was over 40 million in 2013 (Harvard School of Public Health 2016; WHO 2015). It was further projected that over 1 billion adults would be obese by 2030 if the epidemic is not reversed. WHO defines overweight and obesity as ‘abnormal or excessive fat accumulation that may impair health’. Mathematically, it is determined by the body mass index (BMI) as a calculation of a person’s weight in kilograms divided by the square of his/her height in meters. The WHO defines that a BMI equal to or over 25 is overweight, and 30 is obese (WHO 2015). Obesity leads to chronic disease which threatens the healthcare systems, the economy and individual lives. Enormous healthcare costs are associated with curing malnutrition and obesity, totaling $3.5 trillion dollars globally which represented 5% of the world’s gross domestic product in 2013 (FAOUN 2013). This pertinent problem can be helped with a sustainable food supply and by producing not only staple crops but also nutritious foods which are nutrient dense. In addition, reducing food loss can allow for more food to become available and affordable.

Micronutrient deficiencies

Malnutrition and obesity can be leading factors for micronutrient deficiencies which hinder the health of an individual. Some of the most commonly affected nutrients include vitamin A, iron and zinc. Approximately 250,000–500,000 children who are vitamin A deficient develop blindness each year, and half of these children pass away within a year of losing their sight (WHO 2016). Vitamin A deficiency is a public health problem and it is crucial for maternal and child survival (WHO 2016). Having adequate food supplies rich in vitamin A can greatly reduce the risk of mortality. In addition, iron deficiency affects approximately 30% of the world’s population. Approximately half of pregnant women and about 40% of children are anemic in developing countries (WHO 2016). Iron deficiency is known as one of the most widespread nutritional disorders in the world. Moreover, zinc deficiency has affected approximately 2 billion people worldwide in 2009 (WHO 2012). Zinc deficiency mainly occurs from the inadequate intake or absorption from diet. Micronutrient deficiency in general is a more prominent problem in the developing countries than the rest of the world due to food insecurity and having a lack of consistent distribution infrastructure.

In the process of eliminating micronutrient deficiencies and malnutrition, organizations that partner with government and non-government sponsors have been involved. An example of this is the Sprinkles Global Health Initiative which developed ‘sprinkle sachets’ for in-home food fortification. These sachets are formulated with a blend of powdered micronutrients which are ready to be sprinkled onto cooked food (Sprinkles 2016). The mission of this initiative is to ‘help eliminate malnutrition, including micronutrient malnutrition, through focused research and advocacy’ (Sprinkles 2016). Sprinkle sachets are a simple and efficient way to add micronutrients to a lacking diet.

Protein consumption

The increase in global population directly correlates with the increased amount of protein that is projected for human consumption. According to the Food Agriculture Organization, between 2000 and 2020 there will be a massive increase in demand for animal protein. Global meat production was projected to rise from 233 million tons to 300 million tons, milk from 568 million tons to 700 million tons and an increase of 30% for egg production (Speedy 2016). The growth in protein consumption is not distributed evenly by country due to food preferences and diet patterns. This encourages global trading and economic activities. The demand for increasing protein consumption also means more land is required to accommodate livestock and more animal feed is needed (Speedy 2016) which contributes to the challenges of feeding the world in the future.

Regulations

Food laws and regulations can vary from country to country, leading to a lack of harmonization in definitions and guidelines among the various regulatory agencies (Chiesal et al. 2012). Comprehensive and harmonized regulatory systems, and sufficient budget and technical expertise are required in meeting the challenges in food quality and standards (Chiesal et al. 2012). From the Food Standard Conference in 1962, a joint effort from FAO and WHO created Codex Alimentarius with the mandate to develop and coordinate international food standards in protecting consumer health and ensuring fair practices in the food trade (Codex Alimentarius 2015). Codex Alimentarius provides recommendations for the food and beverage industry by establishing a standard code of practice and guidelines related to food products and processes (Codex Alimentarius 2015). Comprehensive regulatory systems are vital in ensuring the quality of food supplies during global trading.

Consumer acceptance

Consumer acceptance is often one of the most difficult yet critical factors when it comes to using technology or knowledge in finding a solution. A good idea cannot become commercially feasible unless it gains public support. Consumer acceptance and attitudes toward a given technology often need to be addressed early in the development stage to increase the success rate of using that technology (Frewer et al. 2011). Consumer acceptance can come from risk perception, emotional acceptance, moral judgments and social norms (Lusk et al. 2014). When new food technologies are being perceived as risky or have higher loss than benefits, it is less likely to be accepted. Frewer et al. (2011) compared seven food-related technologies including genetically modified food and crops, nutrigenomics and personal nutrition, animal cloning, nanotechnology, food irradiation, high-pressure processing and pulsed electric field. In general, those technologies that are considered bioactive such as the genetically modified food and crops raised the most concerns (Frewer et al. 2011). Consumers experience high rejection levels toward a technology when they lack knowledge in its mechanisms and applications (Frewer et al. 2011). For decades, controversies existed on genetically modified organisms and the perception even varies by country. There is no definitive answer toward what is acceptable and many consumer decisions are influenced by personal experiences and social media.

Acceptance of technologies

There is a continuous need to innovate and advance current technology to meet the demands of increasing food security, sustainability and the food supply chain. As previously discussed, one of the main challenges in using new technology is consumer attitudes and acceptance. Over the past century, genetically modified organisms generated heated debates on its safety, regulation and ethical practice. How the general public perceives new technologies that are currently being developed and tested is an important consideration. Other considerations regarding the acceptance of new technologies are beyond the scope of science and become more ideological, eg science-resistant humans (Borowitz 2015). From differing perspectives and judgments, variability in individuals’ and groups’ acceptance of given technologies that improve food security and nutrition will depend on undertaking rigorous multidisciplinary research in order to better articulate risk/benefit as well as cultural issues.

Current and future technologies

Food processing and technology are essential in transforming food to forms that have elongated shelf life, improved functional properties, desired nutritional properties and higher quality. Often in the developing nations, a shortage of food supplies is due to the inability to store food until the next harvest season (Mercer 2008). The reliance of importing food greatly affects a country’s economy. Thus, emerging technologies applied to food are critical in reversing food insecurity and sustaining a constant food supply. A few examples are given below.

Food processing: microwave vacuum drying

Drying is one of the oldest food preservation technologies and it provides advantage in volume reduction for storage (Gupta et al. 2016). In conventional drying, the major disadvantage is the thermal degradation and loss of nutritional value (Drouzas & Schubert 1996). This can be improved by using a modern drying process such as microwave vacuum (MV) drying. MV drying combines microwaves from the electromagnetic spectrum with vacuum in its operations. MV drying has various advantages compared to conventional drying methods, including better drying quality, higher drying velocity, less energy input and rapid processing. This method allows food products to preserve its original nutrient values, maintain the natural flavor, minimize product loss and lower deterioration during processing (Pueschner GmbH 2016). The most common foods which can be used for MV drying include grapes, cranberries, bananas, tomatoes, carrots, garlic, kiwifruit, apples and pears (Gupta et al. 2016). Additionally, MV drying can be achieved at an industrial scale for commercial applications. EnWave uses this technology to produce finished products at higher quality than air drying or spray drying, and it is also cheaper in operational cost than freeze-drying with greater efficiency (EnWave 2016).

Nanotechnology in the agri-food area

Research in nanotechnology experienced an explosion in growth over the past decade and the demand for using nanotechnology is constantly increasing. Nanotechnology is assembling individual or clusters of atoms or molecules into structures of new properties (Joseph and Morrison 2006). Mechanisms of nanotechnology involve modifying devices or materials which have at least one dimension of approximately 1–100 nm in length. The physical and chemical properties exhibited by materials at a nanoscale vary drastically from those at a macroscale (Joseph & Morrison 2006; Duncan 2011; Fathi et al. 2012). Functional ingredients such as vitamins, colors, flavors, preservatives and antimicrobials are essential components in many foods matrices; however, their functionalities can decrease substantially during processing. Systems have been developed using nanoencapsulation and nanoemulsions to protect sensitive bioactive ingredients and to deliver the ingredients, thereby increasing their bioavailability, respectively (Fathi et al. 2012). Some other examples of the use of nanotechnology include gelation and viscosifying agents, anti-caking agents, contaminant sensors and its use in packaging materials (Duncan 2011; Nanowerk 2015; Rai et al. 2015). Although nanotechnology has been shown to have great technological benefits which could help address issues related to food security, it has been slow to be adopted due to regulatory and consumer acceptance issues.

Food safety technology

‘Lab on a Chip’

Yoon and Kim (2012) reported that there are limited real-time detection or early monitoring methods for foodborne illness causing pathogens and mycotoxins. The development of a ‘Lab-on-a-Chip’ device can integrate and miniaturize versatile and automated functions in rapid detection of pathogens and mycotoxins with high sensitivity (Yoon & Kim 2012; Guo et al. 2015). The lab-on-a-chip technology is millimeter or centimeter in size and it can be incorporated into agriculture and food products.

Nano-sensors

There is a constant demand for fresh food that is low in price. Therefore, a challenge is supplying high-quality food and monitoring its status during transportation, storage and retailing. Nano-sensors can be used to detect pathogens such as Salmonella (Byrne 2009) and other toxins in the food supply chain (Food Quality News 2013). These sensors can use dyes or nanoparticles to detect changes (eg detection of oxygen). A wireless communication system is often built within the sensor to communicate information with product manufacturers and monitor the freshness of food during storage and retail (Nanowerk 2015), thereby displaying food quality information and controlling food safety.

DNA barcoding

Food fraud, adulteration and mislabeling can occur in food and natural health products. A recent advancement in food authenticity/traceability is the use of DNA barcoding to compare short genetic markups in the product with a reference DNA sequence (Galimberti et al. 2013; University of Guelph 2013). The United States Food and Drug Administration (FDA) reported that seafood is a highly traded commodity and is often mislabeled, as is plant material found in herbal and health products (Branswell 2013). DNA barcoding technology can assist in determining the true identity of the source material (FDA 2015), thereby leading to improved regulation of consumable products and consumer confidence. The barcoding technology led to certification programs such as TRU-ID which can verify the supply chain to detect mislabeled or contaminated ingredients in protecting consumers’ health and safety (Tru-ID 2016). DNA barcoding offers promising rapid detection for food authenticity/traceability.

Protein utilization

The growth of population means higher demand in animal protein sources for human consumption (FAO 2009). This also leads to the demand for more protein supply in animal feed and increased land and water usage (Agriculture and Consumer Protection 2016). The increase in using natural resources such as crops, fresh water, animal protein and plants can set food security and environmental sustainability at risk. The need for plant protein alternatives is critical, and combining plant sources in the right combination can achieve adequate essential amino acid profiles. Currently, major industrial protein ingredients from plant sources include soy, wheat, rice, corn, peas, canola and potato (Day 2013). Plant protein utilization can reduce the demand for animal protein sources, thereby reducing environmental impact.

Multicomponent solution

From a food innovation perspective, multicomponent products can be developed in fighting world hunger and nutrient imbalance. The Canadian development of Campbell’s Nourish canned soup provided a nutrient-dense and stable, portable food product, with each serving fulfilling three food groups according to Canada’s Food Guide (Leeder 2012). This type of product could ultimately help in disaster relief and fight global food insecurity. In addition, the Soylent drink developed as a meal replacement beverage using soy protein, algal oil, isomaltulose, vitamins and minerals or brown rice protein, oat flour, sunflower oil, vitamins and minerals in Soylent powder (Soylent 2016) has entered the markets in North America.

Future directions

New protein sources

Cultured protein

A cultured beef ‘in vitro meat’ project was launched in 2011 at Maastricht University, aiming to create an edible hamburger (Maastricht University 2014) which utilizes tissue engineering technology (Future Food 2014). Cultured beef is created from feeding and nurturing beef muscle cells to create muscle tissues. The muscle cells grow into strands and 20,000 small strands of cells can make a normal sized burger (Maastricht University 2015). Consuming cultured beef can eliminate 99% of the currently used farming land requirements and reduce greenhouse gas emissions. This idea would appear to be sustainable, but the question of whether consumers would accept the novel concept of growing meat in a petri-plate remains as a possible barrier.

Alternative protein sources

Insects are another potential source which can be used as a sustainable protein supply (Proteinsect 2016). FAO (2015b) suggests that edible insects have much higher food conversion rates than livestock and they consume less food. Insects are nutrient dense and they contain high quality of protein, vitamins and amino acids (FAO 2015b). The high nutrient profile makes it an ideal food ingredient. A team of McGill University MBA students undertook a project whereby insect-infused flour was created to improve the availability of nutritious foods around the world (CBC 2013), given that insects are consumed regularly in many countries. The concept used the high protein and iron content of insects in order to offer an alternative food source to feed the population of developing countries. Using sensory analysis, consumers found that the insect-fortified flour either tasted neutral or even better than products made with traditional corn flour (CBC 2014). The incorporation of insect powder into food formulations could be a feasible solution (Yi et al. 2013).

The use of genomics

There has been an increasing focus on using diet to maintain health. Nutrigenomics is the study of how specific genetic variance alters the response to food in an individual and how different food affects one’s genes (UC Davis 2012). The genetic makeup can be a major factor contributing to the degree of a diet’s effects on health and disease. Nutrigenomics has potential in disease prevention, disease mitigation and ways in treating chronic disease as it can fulfill each person’s specific nutritional needs based on his or her genotypic information (UC Davis 2012). Bringing this idea to business, companies like Nutrigenomix provide services in using genomic information in improving health through personalized nutrition (Nutrigenomix 2013).

Potential future directions

In the aging population, dysphagia is a disease which causes difficulty in swallowing and it commonly affects older adults (O’Neil et al. 1999). Patients suffering from dysphagia cannot consume normal food as swallowing is a problem. Often in hospitals and long-term care facilities, food is pureed for dysphagia patients. However, the bland and mush appearance of food puree is unappetizing. A future direction in reversing this problem could be molding the puree into its original food shape (Med Diet 2016) to improve the sensory acceptability of food. 3D printing of food using food ingredients to generate products is a possible solution. Currently, many nursing homes in Germany use 3D printing to create food called ‘smoothfood’ for residents who suffer from dysphagia, to make food more appetizing (Food Management 2014). Additionally, 3D food printing has the potential in addressing global food insecurity challenges by incorporating protein alternative sources or wild plant sources into making healthier food options, and reduces waste for food manufacturers, increases culinary creativity and customizes products based on individuals’ nutritional needs (Charlebois 2015). However, a challenge is the high expense and complex infrastructure associated with this technology. Possibly, 3D printing of food could be a reality that is as simple as ‘press print and eat’.

In advancing technology, the interesting, novel and innovative solutions for addressing food security will likely come from the nexus of various disciplines, eg genomics and engineering (a 3D printer which ‘prints’ food specific to our nutritional requirements as determined by our DNA), or from areas such as biomimicry by imitating nature’s patterns and strategies (Biomimicry Institute 2015). An agricultural biomimicry example is growing food in resilient ways using the prairies as a model system for producing stable natural ecosystems (Biomimicry Institute 2015).

Strengthening global food science and technology for humanity: IUFoST

The International Union of Food Science and Technology (IUFoST) is a voluntary, non-profit federation of national food science organizations linking the world’s food scientists and technologists. IUFoST supports various programs and projects globally to increase the safety and security of the world’s food supply and it is part of the International Council for Science (ICSU). This organization provides educational programs, scholarship opportunities and distance education in the hope of strengthening knowledge in food safety, security, traceability and food defense (IUFoST 2016). The organization’s mission is to promote international cooperation and collaboration; to provide education and training to food scientists and technologists around the world and to promote professionalism and professional organization among food scientists and technologists (IUFoST 2016). It is these organizations such as IUFoST and its member countries and their individual members that make possible creative solutions in addressing the burgeoning issues related to food security.

Conclusions

The increase in global population will demand increased food supply, fresh water and arable land, thereby contributing to significant environmental impacts. In addition, food safety concerns, nutrition deficiencies, postharvest losses, issues related to policy and regulations and consumer attitudes are prominent challenges. Despite these concerns for the future, the continuous push for research and technological advancements must continue if we are to successfully address global food security and sustainability issues.

Acknowledgements

The authors would like to acknowledge the following: Doug Grahame, Kara Griffiths, Julia Mirotta, Rhiannon Jamieson-Williams, Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada, Canada Research Chairs Program, University of British Columbia, International Union of Food Science and Technology, Holy Spirit University of Kaslik (USEK), and Global Confederation of Higher Education Associations for the Agricultural and Life Sciences (GCHERA).

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the Canada Research Chairs [grant number 950-221664]; Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada [grant number RPGIN 2281].

Notes

† This manuscript is based on a presentation at the 8th World Conference of the Global Confederation of Higher Education Associations for Agriculture and Life Sciences (GCHERA), Holy Spirit University of Kaslik (USEK), Lebanon, 25–26 June 2015.