World leaders have reaffirmed the right of everyone to have access to safe and nutritious food. As the world’s population grows, much more effort and innovation is required to sustainably increase agricultural production, food processing, improve the global food supply chain, decrease food losses and waste, and ensure that all have access to nutritious food. The challenges for achieving the targets set forth for United Nations’ Sustainable Development goals (SDGs) are interconnected and cannot be addressed in isolation. Policies addressing priorities will be needed, but the prevailing governance model assigns malnutrition to the health sector and food insecurity to agriculture, resulting in a disjointed and uncoordinated framework. The concept of ‘food systems’ has gained prominence in recent years amongst both scholars and policy-makers. Experts from diverse disciplines and backgrounds have particularly discussed the nature and origin of the “unsustainability” of our modern food systems.
A sustainable food system lies at the heart of the SDGs. The 17 SDGs provide a blueprint for current and future generations’ sustainable global development. In particular, SDG-2 (‘Zero Hunger’) focuses on achieving food security, eliminating malnutrition in all its forms, and promoting sustainable agriculture. SDG-12, a related goal, calls for responsible production and consumption. Our ability to achieve these goals will demand on some introspection concerning the current and future food production, fulfilling the global nutrition, and health demands. Therefore, there is a need to interconnect the science and technology for achieving food sustainability, including strategies for food and agriculture systems that achieve food security and improved nutrition and promote sustainable agricultural practices. Thus, understanding the challenges and providing novel research and developments in food science and technology is vital in assessing the sustainable food systems and achieving the SDGs by 2030.
From 29th-31st March 2022, Amity Institute of Food Technology (Amity University) held the
5th AMIFOST International Conference on the theme of “Food Sustainability: Challenges and Opportunities for the Future”. The conference brought together food laureates, scientists, researchers, entrepreneurs, academicians, chemists, dietitians, nutritionists, engineers, and technologists from all over the world to discuss sustainable solutions for improving food production, processing, security, and quality, focusing on sustainable food production and supply chain resilience.
This Research Topic aims to showcase original research and review papers contributed to the conference (as well as those submitted by external authors), on the challenges and trends and innovations in achieving food sustainability, as depicted in the following themes:
• Sustainable Green food processing technologies;
• Technologies for food safety and quality analysis;
• Climate change and sustainable food production;
• Valorization of food by-products and food waste;
• Food diversity and food security;
• Advances in food formulations and packaging – introducing sustainable food products and technologies;
• Responsible consumption and sustainable diets;
• Conservation and promotion of traditional food culture;
• Food and Function: achieving bigger goals.
