From farm to fork: future supply chains need to measure and trade nutrient content

C Friedrich H Longin; Muhammad Afzal; Khaoula El Hassouni

doi:10.1016/j.tplants.2023.05.011

From farm to fork: future supply chains need to measure and trade nutrient content

Trends Plant Sci. 2023 Nov;28(11):1237-1244. doi: 10.1016/j.tplants.2023.05.011. Epub 2023 Jun 9.

Authors

C Friedrich H Longin¹, Muhammad Afzal², Khaoula El Hassouni³

Affiliations

¹ State Plant Breeding Institute, University of Hohenheim, 70599 Stuttgart, Germany. Electronic address: friedrich.longin@uni-hohenheim.de.
² State Plant Breeding Institute, University of Hohenheim, 70599 Stuttgart, Germany. Electronic address: m.afzal@uni-hohenheim.de.
³ State Plant Breeding Institute, University of Hohenheim, 70599 Stuttgart, Germany. Electronic address: khaoula.elhassouni@uni-hohenheim.de.

PMID: 37301668
DOI: 10.1016/j.tplants.2023.05.011

Abstract

In the future, 8-10 billion people will need to be fed by our agriculture and food production system. Moreover, currently up to five billion people are already affected by malnutrition including undernutrition, inadequate consumption of micronutrients, and overweight. A healthy and sustainable diet will therefore play a pivotal role in our future, but most food products are traded and consumed based only on techno-functional or gustatory properties. We wish to stimulate a debate on the urgent need for multidisciplinary research and education to realize future diets with enhanced nutritional profiles. In particular, there is a need to better measure and understand the factors that influence the nutrients of food products along the global supply chains.

Keywords: food system; malnutrition; micronutrients; multidisciplinary research; supply chain.

Publication types

Review