Special Issue "Innovations for Sustainable Food Processing and Supply Chain Management"

A special issue of Sustainability (ISSN 2071-1050).

Deadline for manuscript submissions: 28 February 2022.

Special Issue Editors

Prof. Dr. Anil Kumar Anal
E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Department of Food, Agriculture, and Bioresources, School of Environment, Resources, and Development, Asian Institute of Technology, Pathum Thani 12120, Thailand
Interests: food safety; food and nutrition security; future foods; bioeconomy; health and well-being
Dr. Takuji W. Tsusaka
E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Ostrom Center for Advanced Studies on Natural Resource Governance, Asian Institute of Technology, Pathum Thani 12120, Thailand
Interests: agricultural economics; poverty reduction; social capital in common-pool resource management; ex-post impact evaluation; technology adoption; and gender in smallholder agriculture

Special Issue Information

Dear Collegues,

The global food system today is beset by serious challenges, including the COVID-19 pandemic, malnutrition, climate change, plastic pollution, uncertainty in trade policies, resource degradation, biodiversity loss, a growing and ageing population, urbanization, etc. Food demand is on the rise due to population growth, rising income, and changing consumption patterns; production and prices have become more volatile; hunger and poverty levels remain high in some countries; and land conversion from forests to estate agriculture exacerbates environmental challenges. COVID-19 raised shown significant alarm towards the importance of functioning food supply chains and the need to further increase their resilience to emergencies and crises such as pandemics, climate change, and geopolitical forces. Safer and nutritious food produce will increasingly be called upon to address a wide range of critical needs for nine billion people by 2050; as well as higher and more resilient incomes for better livelihoods and well-being. Technological developments within the food system most obviously contribute to the economic efficiency of the system, mainly through a reduction in production costs and the adaptation of products to consumer criteria. If recent trends continue, the number of people affected by hunger will surpass 840 million by 2030. At the same time, a profound change in the global food system is needed if we are to nourish the more than 690 million people who are hungry today—and the additional two billion people the world will be by 2050. However, the food system is increasingly expected to meet broader societal objectives, and many of the 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) of the United Nations aspire to that aim, including SDG 2 (Zero Hunger), SDG 3 (Good Health and Well Being), SDG 12 (Sustainable Consumption and Production), SDG 13 (Climate Action), etc.

In this context, innovations in food processing and sustainable food production are crucial to help alleviate the perils of hunger and provide nutritious food to tackle nutrient deficiency. Therefore, the implications of innovations within the food system have to be considered through a sustainability perspective. Technological and management innovations have significant effects upon the food system, such as passing materials more quickly through the food supply chain; diminishing the impacts of distance for the sourcing of materials, critical towards safer and high-value production; and impacting upon the structure for enhancing the nutritional values and diversity of the food system. An interesting aspect of innovation is its capacity both to participate in reforming current food systems and to facilitate the development of new models for food production, trading, and consumption.

The key question is: What insights can research provide in this context? Accordingly, this Special Issue will consider submissions of research papers involving, but not limiting to:

  1. Food innovations for sustainability and health;
  2. Sustainable food supply chain technologies and/or management;
  3. The future of food and climate change: innovative green technology in food processing and packaging systems;
  4. Farm-to-fork food quality and safety: issues, challenges and systemic approaches.

We invite submissions by scholars from all academic disciplines to shed light on these broad research areas.

Prof. Dr. Anil Kumar Anal
Dr. Takuji W. Tsusaka
Guest Editors

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 papers will be 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. Sustainability 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 1900 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

  • innovations
  • food systems
  • food quality
  • supply chain
  • food processing
  • food technology
  • packaging technology
  • sustainability
  • climate action

Published Papers (1 paper)

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

Other

Systematic Review
Calcium from Finger Millet—A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis on Calcium Retention, Bone Resorption, and In Vitro Bioavailability
Sustainability 2021, 13(16), 8677; https://doi.org/10.3390/su13168677 - 04 Aug 2021
Viewed by 367
Abstract
Calcium deficiency during child growth leads to osteoporosis in later stages of life. Finger millet is one of the calcium dense foods, with three times the level of calcium than milk, and the only cereal that contains high calcium content which is consistent [...] Read more.
Calcium deficiency during child growth leads to osteoporosis in later stages of life. Finger millet is one of the calcium dense foods, with three times the level of calcium than milk, and the only cereal that contains high calcium content which is consistent across different varieties (364 ± 58 mg/100 g). Thus, finger millet has potential for addressing calcium deficiency naturally. This study aimed to determine the retention and impact of finger millet calcium on bone turnover through a systematic review and meta-analysis. Three human studies were eligible for systematic review. Of these, only two were eligible for meta-analysis to assess the retention of calcium in children of 9 to 12 years. One study on bone turnover markers was not used in the meta-analysis as at least two studies are required to conduct meta-analysis. Due to the lack of complete data only four studies were eligible for meta-analysis to assess the in vitro bioavailability of calcium from unprocessed and a range of different types of processed finger millet. The result shows that there was significant retention (p < 0.05) of 23.4 ± 2.9% calcium from finger-millet-based diet which could help bone accretion during child growth if finger-millet-based diet is consumed. The bone turnover marker study shows that the resorption of calcium reduced by 28% and 47% among peri and post-menopausal women respectively after feeding the nutria mixed grain ball. However, there is no significant change in bone formation marker. Depending on the type of processing, calcium bioavailability either increased or decreased. One in vitro study showed that calcium bioavailability from finger millet was 28.6% when boiled, whereas three studies on processing show that certain processing can double the calcium bioavailability to 61.4%. Irrespective of the type of processing, finger millets contribute to high calcium retention and extremely high bioavailable calcium and could be useful for healthy growth and in dealing with complications related to calcium deficiency. Full article
Show Figures

Figure 1

Back to TopTop