Annual Review of Food Science and Technology

Building a Resilient,
Sustainable, and Healthier
Food Supply Through
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Innovation and Technology

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David Julian McClements,1 Rodolphe Barrangou,2

Colin Hill,3 Jozef L. Kokini,4 Mary Ann Lila,5
Anne S. Meyer,6 and Liangli Yu7
1
Department of Food Science, University of Massachusetts, Amherst, Massachusetts 01003,
USA; email: [email protected]
2
Department of Food, Bioprocessing and Nutrition Sciences, North Carolina State University,
Raleigh, North Carolina 27695, USA
3
APC Microbiome Ireland and School of Microbiology, University College Cork,
Cork T12YT20, Ireland
4
Department of Food Sciences, Purdue University, West Lafayette, Indiana 47907, USA
5
Department of Food, Bioprocessing, and Nutrition Sciences, North Carolina State University,
Kannapolis, North Carolina 28081, USA
6
Protein Chemistry and Enzyme Technology Division, Department of Biotechnology and
Biomedicine, Technical University of Denmark, DTU, DK-2800, Kgs. Lyngby, Denmark
7
Department of Nutrition and Food Science, University of Maryland, College Park,
Maryland 20742, USA

Annu. Rev. Food Sci. Technol. 2021. 12:1–28 Keywords

First published as a Review in Advance on
future foods, food production, food processing, environmental impacts,
December 21, 2020
nanotechnology, gene editing, genetic engineering, artificial intelligence,
The Annual Review of Food Science and Technology is
robotics
online at food.annualreviews.org

https://doi.org/10.1146/annurev-food-092220- Abstract
030824
The modern food supply faces many challenges. The global population con-
Copyright © 2021 by Annual Reviews.
tinues to grow and people are becoming wealthier, so the food produc-
All rights reserved
tion system must respond by creating enough high-quality food to feed
everyone with minimal damage to our environment. The number of peo-
ple suffering or dying from diet-related chronic diseases, such as obe-
sity, diabetes, heart disease, stroke, and cancer, continues to rise, which is
partly linked to overconsumption of highly processed foods, especially high-
calorie or rapidly digestible foods. After falling for many years, the num-
ber of people suffering from starvation or malnutrition is rising, and this

1
 has been exacerbated by the global COVID-19 pandemic. The highly integrated food supply
chains that spread around the world are susceptible to disruptions due to policy changes, eco-
nomic stresses, and natural disasters, as highlighted by the recent pandemic.
In this perspective article, written by members of the Editorial Committee of the Annual
Review of Food Science and Technology, we highlight some of the major challenges confronting the
modern food supply chain as well as how innovations in policy and technology can be used to
address them. Pertinent technological innovations include robotics, machine learning, artificial
intelligence, advanced diagnostics, nanotechnology, biotechnology, gene editing, vertical farming,
and soft matter physics. Many of these technologies are already being employed across the food
chain by farmers, distributors, manufacturers, and consumers to improve the quality, nutrition,
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safety, and sustainability of the food supply. These innovations are required to stimulate the de-
velopment and implementation of new technologies to ensure a more equitable, resilient, and ef-
Annu. Rev. Food Sci. Technol. 2021.12:1-28. Downloaded from www.annualreviews.org

ficient food production system. Where appropriate, these technologies should be carefully tested
before widespread implementation so that proper risk–benefit analyses can be carried out. They
can then be employed without causing unforeseen adverse consequences. Finally, it is important
to actively engage all stakeholders involved in the food supply chain throughout the development
and testing of these new technologies to support their adoption if proven safe and effective.

INTRODUCTION
In 2020, The Economist reported that the food industry accounts for 10% of global GDP, with
an $8 trillion global supply chain employing around 1.5 billion people (Economist 2020c). Any
shock to this supply chain would therefore have devasting economic, societal, and health impacts.
Moreover, this system must provide enough food for future generations. Many of the sustainability
goals outlined by the United Nations are linked to the food supply: zero hunger; good health
and well-being; clean water; good sanitation; and thriving industry, innovation, and infrastructure
(http://www.un.org). The availability of a diverse range of safe, affordable, and nutritious foods
is a hallmark of a prosperous society. Most of us living in developed countries take it for granted
that we can walk into a supermarket or restaurant and purchase this type of food. However, for
much of human history this was not the case, and it is not guaranteed that this will always be
the case in the future. Indeed, the global population continues to grow, which will put increasing
strain on the food supply, as we will need to feed everyone a high-quality diet while minimizing
damage to our environment (Poore & Nemecek 2018, Willett et al. 2019). Moreover, as the food
supply becomes more globally integrated it is important to ensure that it is resilient to economic,
political, and natural shocks, as highlighted by the recent disruptions caused by the SARS-CoV-2
(COVID-19) pandemic.
This opinion piece, written by members of the Editorial Committee of the Annual Review of
Food Science and Technology, highlights some of the most important challenges facing the modern
food supply chain and indicates how recent advances in modern technology are being employed to
tackle them (Figure 1). The application of these new technologies could have a major impact on
the efficiency and sustainability of the global food supply, as emphasized in a recent report by the
World Economic Forum, whose main findings are summarized in Table 1 (WEF 2019). How-
ever, technological innovations are only one component of a broader strategy. A holistic approach
is required that involves the engagement of stakeholders throughout the food supply chain, in-
cluding producers, processors, distributors, consumers, educators, researchers, and regulators. In
particular, new government policies, infrastructure, and investment are required to stimulate and
support innovation, promote the adoption of new technologies, and inform consumers about their

2 McClements et al.
 CHALLENGES TECHNOLOGICAL SOLUTIONS

Climate change Diet-related Policy changes Big Data and

Pollution chronic disease Gene editing machine learning
Land and water use Biodiversity loss Biotechnology Alternative proteins
Growing population Global pandemics Nanotechnology Sensor technologies
Hunger and Economic disruptions Food architecture Artificial intelligence
malnutrition Food safety Robotics and Green chemistry
Food miles Food waste automation

Figure 1
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The modern food industry is using numerous technological innovations to address some of the major challenges associated with
creating an abundant, resilient, healthy, and sustainable food supply.
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Table 1 Potential economic impacts of adopting selected new technologies on the food and agriculture industrya
Technological innovation Potential economic impact
Alternative proteins (plant-based, insect-based, Reduce GHG emissions (950 million tonnes CO2 equivalents)
cellular agriculture) Reduce freshwater withdrawals (400 billion m3 )
Free 400 million hectares of land
Sensor technologies (safety, quality, traceability) Reduce food waste (20 million tonnes)
Personalized nutrition Reduce overweight and obesity (55 million people) and other chronic
diseases
Mobile service delivery (online programs and apps) Increase farmer income ($200 billion)
Reduce GHG emissions (100 megatonnes CO2 eq)
Reduce freshwater withdrawals (100 billion m3 )
Big Data and analytics (hardware and software) Increase farmer income ($70 billion)
Increase production (150 million tonnes)
Real-time supply chain transparency and traceability Reduce food waste (35 million tonnes)
(IoT)
Blockchain-enabled technology Reduce food waste (30 million tonnes)
Precision agriculture (sowing, growing, harvesting, Reduce farmer costs ($100 billion)
etc.) Increase production (300 million tonnes)
Reduce freshwater withdrawals (180 billion m3 )
Gene editing (seeds) Increase farmer income ($100 billion)
Increase production (400 million tonnes)
Reduce micronutrient deficiency (100 million people)
Microbiome technologies (agricultural crops) Increase farmer income ($100 billion)
Increase production (250 million tonnes)
Reduce GHG emissions (30 megatonnes CO2 eq)
Advanced crop and soil management technologies Increase production (50 million tonnes)
(biologics and micronutrients) Reduce GHG emissions (5 megatonnes CO2 eq)
Renewable energy generation and storage (solar, Increase farmer income ($100 billion)
wind, water, batteries) Increase production (530 million tonnes)
Reduce freshwater withdrawals (250 billion m3 )

a
Adapted from WEF (2019).
Abbreviations: GHG, greenhouse gas; IoT, Internet of Things.

www.annualreviews.org • A Resilient, Sustainable, and Healthier Food Supply 3

 potential benefits and pitfalls so they can make informed choices. Moreover, investors and donors
from private companies, philanthropic organizations, and governments are needed to bring many
of these technologies to fruition.

FOOD RESILIENCE AND FRAGILITY: LESSONS

FROM THE GLOBAL PANDEMIC
The Problem
The COVID-19 pandemic has demonstrated both the resilience and fragility of the modern food
supply (Economist 2020a,b). The majority of those living in developed countries have been able
to secure most of their weekly groceries, albeit with considerably more inconvenience due to
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social distancing rules and panic buying of certain products (Kawamura 2020). This highlights the
inherent resilience of much of the modern food supply chain: Most foods are still being produced
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and distributed (Economist 2020b). During the pandemic, there was still enough food to feed the
entire population of the United States, although there were shortages of specific products (Vilsack
2020). Nevertheless, the pandemic has highlighted weak links and potential fragilities in the food
supply chain (Vilsack 2020).
The pandemic has shuttered many restaurants, cafes, bars, and other food distribution cen-
ters, causing them to rapidly pivot from on-premise sales to electronic commerce coupled with
contact-free delivery or curbside pickup (Shveda 2020). Some food production facilities, particu-
larly meat processing factories, were forced to close because of high rates of infection caused by the
close proximity of workers and strenuous working conditions (Reuben 2020, Vilsack 2020). For
instance, more than a thousand cases of COVID-19 were reported from a single slaughterhouse
in northwestern Germany in the summer of 2020 (Deutsche Welle 2020). These disruptions have
resulted in increases in food waste and economic losses. In an interview with the BBC (Saladino
2020), Andre Laperriere, Executive Director of Global Open Data for Agriculture and Nutrition
(GODAN), reported that food waste in developed economies had risen from around 30% to 40%
because of the pandemic. As an example, many animals in the livestock industry could not be pro-
cessed into meat because of closures of key processing facilities and thus farmers were forced to
euthanize them. In the future, it may be important to have a larger number of smaller automated
meat processing facilities rather than a few large labor-intensive ones that increase the risks of
disruption. Similarly, many farmers were left with large quantities of unsold produce (fruits and
vegetables) when supply chains broke down and restaurants and other facilities (schools, universi-
ties, and the hospitality industry) closed, leading to economic losses, increased waste (dumping of
milk, meat, and fresh produce), and reduced sustainability (Kawamura 2020, Shveda 2020). These
disruptions highlight the need for policy and infrastructure changes that promote the redirection
of food supplies when there are disturbances in the supply chain (Kawamura 2020).
The pandemic has also constrained the cross-border transit of migrant workers who usually
harvest fruit and vegetable crops and curtailed interstate and international transport of food by
delivery vehicles, which has led to significant stockpiles and food waste (Park 2020). It has also
led to new sanitation protocols at every link in the food production and delivery chain. It has im-
peded the delivery of nutritious school lunches to some of the most vulnerable. The shift of food
distribution from restaurants to home consumption has necessitated changes in food packaging,
portion sizes, and product labeling (Economist 2020b). Early-stage investments in food industry
entrepreneurs have dwindled, and revenues for many food companies have plunged. A research
analyst at Credit Suisse estimated that food-at-home spending increased to 80% of total food ex-
penditures during the pandemic, compared to 47% before (Hensel & Kuhn 2020). The Economist

4 McClements et al.
 magazine recently reported that the amount of food distributed by food banks in the United States
had increased by more than 20%, and more than 1 in 6 children were not eating enough due to
the pandemic, mainly because of the large increase in unemployment (Economist 2020a). If these
high jobless numbers persist for an extended period, the nature of the foods produced by the food
industry may change. In particular, there may be greater emphasis on the production of cheaper
convenience foods. It will be important to ensure these foods are nutritious as well as tasty and
affordable. Moreover, resources may need to be provided to families so they can afford to purchase
healthy foods to feed themselves and their families (Vilsack 2020). In general, some of the poorest
people in the United States and other countries were the most impacted by this crisis, and the
UN predicts the number of people with acute hunger in the world will almost double to around
265 million as a result of the pandemic (Economist 2020b). It is critical to address these issues by
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making the food supply chain more resilient and responsive to this kind of stress.
SARS-CoV-2, although unparalleled in its impact on the food chain, follows on the heels of
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other infectious disease outbreaks: SARS-CoV (2002); H5N1 Avian Flu (2004); H1N1 influenza
(2009); MERS-CoV (2012); and Ebola (2014, 2018). The dynamics of disease transmission, cou-
pled with the highly interconnected nature of global food distribution systems, means it is crucial
for the food industry to develop effective strategies to prevent, mitigate, and detect the effects
of any future infectious outbreaks. Moreover, global pandemics, which have their own unique
disruptive features (such as social distancing, reduced workforces, and unemployment), are only
one potential disruption to our food supply. Other stressors, such as population growth, global
warming, environmental degradation, hurricanes, volcanic eruptions, solar storms, terrorist at-
tacks, nuclear war, economic collapse, and political factors have different effects that need to be
carefully analyzed and accounted for when designing a more robust food supply chain. This will
require stress tests similar to those used by the banking system.

Potential Solutions
A broad spectrum of technological innovations is being developed to address problems associated
with the resilience of the modern food supply to pandemics and other disruptors. Some of the
most important are briefly highlighted here.

Logistics: e-commerce and home delivery. As on-premise food services have been devastated
by virus transmission fears and the need for social distancing, food deliveries and curbside pickups
have skyrocketed, frequently with preordering and payment on mobile devices to eliminate cur-
rency handling and human contact. As more people become comfortable with this kind of eating
experience, they may be less likely to go to supermarkets or restaurants, thereby changing how
foods are purchased and consumed. Although home deliveries coordinated through online apps
are convenient to consumers and help maintain social distancing, they are typically more damag-
ing to the environment. More fossil fuels are expended in delivering small numbers of food items
to individual households, and more packaging is often involved, leading to increased waste. More-
over, home delivery services are often more expensive so that only the more affluent can afford
them. Some of these problems may be alleviated by using autonomous electric vehicles to deliver
foods to homes (Shveda 2020) or by developing reusable or biodegradable packaging materials
(see below).
Innovative e-commerce approaches are also being used by farmers to help them shift produce
that could not be sold because of the disruption of their normal distribution chains. For instance,
an online trading platform (iTradeNetwork) that facilitates the supply chain management of per-
ishables has been used to link farmers to companies trying to buy or sell foods during the pandemic

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 (Shveda 2020). These digital services improve the quality, sustainability, and resilience of the food
supply by improving freshness, reducing waste, and increasing versatility. As farmers and food
manufacturers become more familiar with these technologies, spurred by the need to address dis-
ruptions caused by the pandemic, they are more likely to adopt them, thereby benefiting the food
supply in the future.
Some companies have developed new digital platforms for food companies to specifically ad-
dress social distancing and contact tracing within their facilities as a result of the pandemic. For
instance, Proximity TraceTM from Triax (Norwalk, CT) is software developed to include a proxim-
ity alert sensor when workers get too close together, as well as keeping a record of the interactions
between workers to facilitate contact tracing if a worker contracts the virus.
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Robotics and automation. Many participants in the food supply chain, including raw material
suppliers, food producers, and food distributors, have developed innovative means to meet the
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logistic challenges associated with global pandemics, many of which were inconceivable even a
decade ago. As border restrictions impede the availability of migrant labor, robotic sowing and har-
vesting of crops are increasingly being utilized by farmers. Similarly, more food production facili-
ties are employing robots to carry out tasks normally done by humans, such as sorting, preparing,
processing, and packaging foods. In many cities under lockdown, robotic meal delivery vehicles
are being utilized to circumvent face-to-face encounters. Moreover, supermarkets are removing
the need for cashiers at checkout—one can already walk into some stores (such as the Amazon Go
store in Seattle), select and purchase groceries, and leave without having to interact with a living
person.
These trends are likely to continue after lockdown and may have a major impact on the way we
produce, process, and distribute foods in the future. Many of these innovations will make the food
system more efficient, improving food quality and reducing waste, but they will also have negative
impacts. Many workers in the food supply chain will lose their jobs and livelihoods, which will
have to be addressed through innovative policies.

Indoor farming: vertical farming. The potential for transportation disruptions along the food
supply chain has spurred the development of food production facilities close to urban sites, includ-
ing high-tech climate-controlled indoor farms such as vertical farming (Park 2020). Companies
are looking for spaces to locate these farms in cities, such as unused parking lots, building rooftops,
abandoned warehouses, underground tunnels, and even shipping containers, as well as construct-
ing purpose-built facilities (Park 2020). These indoor farms are designed to carefully control light,
humidity, nutrient, and temperature levels to optimize nutrient levels, growth, and health in crops
(Figure 2). Initially, only high-value fruit and vegetable crops, such as herbs, spices, salad greens,
and sprouts, were commercially feasible using this approach, but technological advances are lead-
ing to viability for an increasing number of other crops. These innovations will shorten supply
chains and make them more resilient to disruption in the future. Indoor farming operations have
numerous features that make them robust to pandemics. They typically have higher sanitation
standards than conventional farms and continuously test the water supply and other inputs for
potential contaminants. They involve high levels of automation and use sensors to monitor crop
growth and quality, which minimizes cross-contamination and virus transmission threats.
Aerofarms (Newark, NJ) is currently the world’s largest indoor research and development ver-
tical farming operation and has already grown more than 800 different types of plants. This com-
pany was able to rapidly pivot production schedules when corporate dining and food service oper-
ations ceased at the onset of the pandemic because of the rapid growth cycles and scalable nature
of indoor crop production. According to the cofounder Marc Oshima, when orders shifted from

6 McClements et al.
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Figure 2
Photograph of a vertical farm for growing food crops under carefully controlled indoor climate conditions.
Figure reproduced with permission from Aerofarms (Newark, NJ).

on-premise dining to takeout/home delivery, the company’s vertical farms were able to quickly
meet the new market and supply safe, fresh, and diverse produce on demand.

Dietary strategies to support immune protection. Many people who have become acutely ill
or died due to COVID-19 have compromised immune systems (Tay et al. 2020). Research shows
that the ability of the human immune system to tackle infections can be enhanced through dietary
interventions (Venkatalakshmi et al. 2016). As a result, researchers are trying to establish the link
between specific diets, foods, and/or food components and the human immune system (Galanakis
2020). The knowledge gained from this work may lead to a new generation of functional food
products specifically designed to enhance human health and resilience by strengthening the im-
mune system. Moreover, people with diabetes, obesity, and hypertension, which can also be tackled
through diet, are at increased risk of dying from COVID-19 (Nieman 2020). In particular, reduc-
ing overall calorie intake and eating more fruit and vegetables, coupled with moderate exercise,
can significantly improve immune function. Current evidence suggests that a healthy diet coupled
with regular exercise is a more effective primary mitigation strategy than therapeutic or pharma-
ceutical approaches.

Innovative food packaging and display. Foods and packaging materials are potential sources
for the spread of pathogenic microorganisms, including the COVID-19 virus (Galanakis 2020).
Some viruses, as well as other pathogenic microorganisms, can survive for hours or days on cer-
tain food and packaging surfaces and longer under refrigeration and frozen storage conditions,
raising safety concerns for consumers as well as food service and processing personnel along the
food supply chain. The ability of any virus or bacterium to survive on surfaces has consequences
for the food industry. In particular, it has affected the way fresh produce is displayed, packaged,

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 and handled. In the future, there may be fewer nonpackaged foods that consumers can directly
select themselves, such as fresh fruits, vegetables, bread, and other baked products. These con-
cerns may lead to a change to more individually wrapped foods, which could have adverse en-
vironmental consequences by increasing the amount of packaging material required. There will,
therefore, be a need to develop more sustainable and environmentally friendly food packaging
materials to replace plastics. Many food researchers are already working in this area and a range
of innovative packaging materials have been created from more sustainable sources, such as pro-
teins and polysaccharides found in waste streams. For instance, active packaging materials are
being developed that not only provide physical protection to foods by forming mechanical bar-
riers, controlling the flow of gasses, and screening them from harmful ultraviolet radiation but
also contain natural antimicrobials that protect the foods from spoilage or pathogenic microbes
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(Bumbudsanpharoke et al. 2015, Sharma et al. 2020). Moreover, smart-packaging materials are be-
ing developed containing integrated sensors that provide detailed information about the freshness
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or safety of a food (Chen et al. 2020, Halonen et al. 2020, Pal & Kant 2020).

Alternative protein sources. COVID-19 and numerous other contagious diseases have arisen
due to the transfer of viruses from animals to humans (Yuan et al. 2020). Indeed, it is hypothesized
that this pandemic started due to transmission of the virus from a bat to an exotic livestock animal
(possibly a pangolin) and then to humans. The close contact between animals and humans in the
livestock industry may therefore promote the spread of viruses, as demonstrated by the various
contagious diseases that have afflicted humans in recent decades, including swine flu (pigs), avian
flu (chickens), and mad cow disease (cattle) (Yuan et al. 2020). Increasing public awareness of the
risks associated with the spread of zoonotic diseases linked to livestock production may further
increase interest in replacing animal proteins with nonanimal alternatives, such as those derived
from plants, insects, seaweeds, or cellular agriculture (Bleakley & Hayes 2017, Fasolin et al. 2019).
Many researchers are already working to identify, isolate, and purify these proteins from natural
sources as well as use them to create food products that can successfully replace conventional
animal-based ones, like milk, cheese, eggs, and meat (Ismail et al. 2020, McClements et al. 2019).
Successful commercial products have already been created, most notably those from Impossible
Foods, Beyond Meat, and Just. Nevertheless, more funding is still required from government
agencies and private investors to stimulate research in this important area.

FOOD PRODUCTION AND SUSTAINABILITY

The Problem
The United Nations predicts the global population will reach nearly 10 billion by 2050 (U.N.
2019). More people are increasing their animal protein consumption through high-protein foods
such as meat, fish, eggs, and milk as they become wealthier. The raising and processing of animals
for food require more valuable resources (land and water) and cause more environmental damage
(greenhouse gas emissions, pollution, and species extinction) than the same quantity of plant-
based foods (Poore & Nemecek 2018, Willett et al. 2019). A major challenge confronting the
modern food supply chain is thus feeding an expanding world population while protecting the
environment.

Potential Solutions
Numerous innovative technologies are being developed to address problems associated with pro-
ducing more foods, reducing food waste, and decreasing the negative impacts of food production

8 McClements et al.
 on the environment. These innovations stretch from optimizing seeds using genetic approaches,
enhancing their growth using next-generation pesticides and fertilizers, and harvesting, process-
ing, and transporting them using autonomous machines. A few examples are provided below.

Improving food production through modern biotechnology. Modern biotechnology is being

applied to agricultural practices to improve their efficiency and create new and improved products.
In particular, genetic engineering has already had enormous impacts on foods produced globally
and arguably has enormous potential for continuing to transform the food supply (Es et al. 2019,
Kamthan et al. 2016, Murray & Maga 2016). The genes of many of the animals, plants, and mi-
crobes utilized in food production can be precisely manipulated to improve food yield, resilience,
sustainability, and nutrition. Nevertheless, it is important that these genetic engineering technolo-
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gies are safe, do not promote undue environmental damage, and are acceptable to consumers and
regulators (Wunderlich & Gatto 2015). There is still considerable resistance to genetically mod-
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ified (GM) foods, despite strong evidence that they have been successfully employed for decades
without causing human health or environmental issues (Delaney et al. 2018).
There are many potential applications of genetic engineering in the food and agricultural ar-
eas, which have broadened with the advent of CRISPR-based genome-editing technologies. As
an example, genetic engineering can be utilized to enhance the nutritional profile of the lipids
in commodity crops, like soybeans or canola, by increasing the amount of polyunsaturated (ω-3)
fatty acids they contain (Zafar et al. 2019). It can also be used to reduce food waste by inhibiting
the browning of fruits and vegetables, such as apples and potatoes. This is being achieved by edit-
ing their genes to reduce the concentration of specific enzymes expressed by the plants, such as
polyphenol oxidase. Indeed, commercial products are already on the market in the United States
that utilize this approach to increase food quality and reduce food waste, e.g., reduced brown-
ing apples by Arctic ApplesTM and potatoes by SimplotTM . Genome editing is also being imple-
mented to improve livestock (hornless cattle, leaner swine, more disease-resistant animals) as well
as the microbes used in food fermentations (dairy starter cultures, brewer’s yeast, and probiotics)
(Doudna & Sternberg 2017).

Improving food sustainability using cellular agriculture. Cellular agriculture is another inno-
vative biotechnology that can potentially reduce the environmental impact of the modern food
production system (Mattick 2018, Waschulin & Specht 2018). Cultured or clean meat can be
grown in commercial-scale bioreactors by cultivating cells isolated from a living animal within
a suitable environment (Bhat et al. 2019). Typically, several cells are collected and then grown
in a bioreactor containing an aqueous broth of the nutrients and growth factors (Specht 2018).
The temperature, oxygen levels, and mechanical forces within the bioreactor are also optimized
to stimulate efficient cell growth. Cultured meat has several potential benefits over conventional
meat due to environmental, sustainability, and ethical reasons. It results in fewer greenhouse gas
emissions, generates fewer pollutants, and requires less land and water than conventional meat
(Alexander et al. 2017, Mattick et al. 2015). It does not promote the loss of biodiversity linked to
modern livestock production. It does not involve the confinement and slaughter of huge numbers
of animals, such as cows, pigs, sheep, and chickens. Moreover, it does not require close contact be-
tween animals and humans, thereby decreasing the risk of zoonotic diseases such as COVID-19.
The main challenge in this area is to economically produce meat-like products on a scale that can
have a substantial impact on the conventional livestock market. Nevertheless, numerous compa-
nies already claim they will be bringing cultured meat products to the market in the near future,
such as Just and Memphis Meats from California (Figure 3).

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Figure 3
Photograph of a meat product (Southern fried chicken) produced by cellular agriculture. Figure reproduced
with permission from Memphis Meats (http://www.memphismeats.com).

Cellular agriculture is also being employed in the food industry to create functional food in-
gredients, such as enzymes, emulsifiers, vitamins, nutraceuticals, colors, and flavors, which are
secreted by specific yeast or bacteria during microbial fermentation. Indeed, several food compa-
nies have already developed cellular agriculture processes based on specific microbes to produce
proteins that are analogous to those found in meat, eggs, or milk (McClements 2019, Waschulin
& Specht 2018). For instance, Perfect Day produces milk proteins, Clara Foods produces egg pro-
teins, and Modern Meadow produces meat proteins. A gene known to code for a particular protein
(such as a milk protein) is inserted into the genetic material of the microbe (Darvishi et al. 2018).
The microbe is then grown in a fermentation tank under optimized conditions, which promotes
expression of the desired protein, which is then isolated and purified. These cellular agriculture
processes are extremely powerful because they can be used to create any protein found in nature,
provided the DNA sequence needed to express it is known. In many cases, however, appreciable
work needs to be done to create economically viable processing operations that can produce food
ingredients on a commercially viable scale. Moreover, it is critical to overcome unfavorable con-
sumer perceptions of genetically modified foods before these technologies can be fully accepted.
Nutrient-dense microbes, such as algae, fungi, and bacteria, suitable for human consumption
can also be cultivated within bioreactors using modern fermentation methods (Ritala et al. 2017).
A commercially successful application of this approach (QuornTM ) involves the production of
meat-like products, such as fillets, burgers, nuggets, and sausages, using a microfungus known as
Fusarium venenatum. This microbe grows into thin filaments that somewhat resemble the mus-
cle fibers in conventional meat products in terms of their appearance, texture, and mouthfeel
(Finnigan 2011, Wiebe 2002). Other kinds of microbes also have potential as meat replacers and
are being investigated for this purpose (Fasolin et al. 2019, Ritala et al. 2017).

10 McClements et al.
 Reducing food waste through biotechnology. Currently, as much as 30–40% of the food pro-
duced globally is wasted, thereby losing valuable nutrients and resources. Innovative biotechnol-
ogy approaches are being developed to reduce waste and enhance economic value by upgrading
food processing sidestreams (Lange & Meyer 2019). Valorization of sidestreams from many classic
large-scale food processes such as beer brewing, cheese production, and meat processing has be-
come vital to increasing competitiveness and sustainability. These biorefinery processes are being
used to create novel functional food ingredients from a variety of sidestreams by carrying out con-
trolled microbial or enzymatic transformations (Lange & Meyer 2019). Some of these sidestreams
are also being used as resources to create innovative biodegradable food packaging materials to
reduce the negative impacts of plastics on the environment (Kabir et al. 2020, Sirohi et al. 2020).
Overall, these technologies have the potential to create new jobs, reduce waste, decrease pollution,
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and provide healthier and more sustainable foods.

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Enhancing agricultural efficiency using nanotechnology. Nanotechnology involves the cre-

ation or manipulation of materials on the nanoscale (1–100 nm) to introduce new or improved
physicochemical properties (Khot et al. 2012, Sozer & Kokini 2009). The functional attributes of
materials often change considerably when their dimensions are reduced to the nanoscale, lead-
ing to innovative approaches to improve food production processes. Nanotech is being utilized
to create nanofertilizers and nanopesticides that have benefits over conventional varieties (Adisa
et al. 2019). For instance, the tiny dimensions of nanoparticles allow them to penetrate into plants
more readily than larger particles. As a result, they can exhibit their desired functions more ef-
fectively, e.g., by providing nutrients to the plants or by destroying internalized plant pathogens.
A new generation of nanoenabled pesticides and fertilizers would increase yields, decrease waste,
improve quality, and decrease pollution.
Functionalized nanoparticles are also being employed as minuscule diagnostic tools to gener-
ate data about the growth stage or health status of plants, the quality of the surrounding soil, or the
environmental conditions to which the plants are exposed (Kamle et al. 2020, Usman et al. 2020).
Water filters containing nanofibers have been developed to remove contaminants or nutrients
from wastestreams arising from agriculture production, thereby reducing pollution and creating
new resources (McClements 2019). They have also been used to desalinate seawater, thereby in-
creasing the amount of water available for agricultural applications (Saleem et al. 2020). Research
is being carried out to assess the potential impact of any nanoparticles used in the food supply
chain on human and environmental health ( Jain et al. 2018, Kaphle et al. 2018).

Digital building blocks: Big Data, artificial intelligence, and machine learning. Our ability
to efficiently produce and distribute foods can be optimized by generating more detailed and
comprehensive information about their properties along the entire food chain and then rapidly
acting upon this knowledge (McClements 2019, WEF 2019). Innovative sensor technologies are
being created to obtain data about specific food attributes (such as composition, quality, freshness,
and microbial contamination) and the factors impacting them (such as temperature, humidity,
light, and oxygen levels). As an example, the growth stage and health status of agricultural crops
and the soils that nourish them can be monitored using tiny sensors embedded in or near the
plants so that water, fertilizers, and pesticides can be applied at the precise time they are required,
as well as enabling harvesting at the optimum time (Shafi et al. 2019). This kind of precision
agriculture can treat each plant individually according to its specific needs, thereby increasing
yields and reducing waste.
Sensors are already available that generate data about the environmental conditions that agri-
cultural crops or food products encounter as they are harvested, stored, processed, and distributed,

www.annualreviews.org • A Resilient, Sustainable, and Healthier Food Supply 11

 including factors such as variations in temperature, light exposure, relative humidity, and mechan-
ical stress (Thakur et al. 2019). These sensors are often integral parts of autonomous machines
(such as tractors or combine harvesters) or drones that can both monitor and treat crops (Maes
& Steppe 2019, Thakur et al. 2019). The multitude of data points generated by these sensors can
then be used to build comprehensive data sets that relate important food or agricultural attributes
(quality, safety, and shelf life) to environmental conditions. This information can then be used to
optimize food quality, increase food safety, and reduce food waste by optimizing the conditions
the products experience throughout the food chain, from farm to table. Advances in computer
science, such as artificial intelligence, machine learning, the Internet of Things, and blockchain
technology, provide powerful tools to establish these relationships (Akyazi et al. 2020).
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Advanced robotics and autonomous machines. Advanced autonomous machines, such as trac-
tors and combine harvesters, are being increasingly used to sow, cultivate, harvest, and process
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agricultural commodities, which is leading to major enhancements in the efficiency and produc-
tivity of farming practices (Wilde 2020). These machines typically contain advanced sensor tech-
nologies and a global positioning system (GPS) so they can collect detailed localized information
about crops and environmental conditions. The precision harvesting market is reported to be
growing at an annual rate of around 11% and is expected to reach around $17.5 billion by 2024
(Claver 2019, MarketsandMarketsTM 2019). The market for these autonomous farming machines
is increasing in both developed and developing countries and includes hardware, software, and
services. As well as improving farming efficiency, robotic farm machinery also makes the food
supply less susceptible to labor shortages and pandemics. Thus, the more widespread application
of these advanced technologies should lead to better quality and more nutritious foods while de-
creasing energy costs and food waste. These new technologies are relatively expensive and thus
are currently out of reach of millions of subsistence farmers around the globe. If more of these
advanced farming practices can be adopted globally, then the quantity and quality of food available
to those who most need it will increase. This will require increased investment by governments,
philanthropic organizations, and businesses as well as innovations in policy (WEF 2019).

Increasing sustainability through innovative indoor farming methods. The potential for in-
novative indoor farming practices, such as vertical farming, to improve the resilience of the food
industry was discussed above. However, indoor farming may also have a pronounced impact on the
sustainability of food production (O’Sullivan et al. 2019). The supply chain for many food products
is extremely long, often stretching around the globe. The distribution of foodstuffs across large
distances involves substantial use of fossil fuels to transport and store the food. The majority of
food consumption occurs within large urban centers; thus, it would be advantageous to bring food
production facilities closer to cities and towns to shorten food supply chains. Several technologies
are being developed to achieve this goal, including advanced climate-controlled greenhouses, hy-
droponic or aeroponic operations, and vertical farming (Shamshiri et al. 2018). These innovative
farming approaches have become increasingly economically viable due to technological advances
and concerns about potential disruptors of the food supply, such as immigration issues, border
controls, land and water resource conservation, contamination concerns, and transportation dis-
ruptions.
Vertical farming operations typically cultivate plants in nonsoil substrates in trays stacked in
vertical tiers that have specialized equipment to deliver water and nutrients at appropriate times
and levels (Figure 2). The plants are exposed to artificial light-emitting diodes, and the light
spectrum (intensity versus wavelength profile) can be fine-tuned to optimize growth and enhance
nutritional quality. Vertical farms typically involve high levels of automation to plant, maintain,

12 McClements et al.
 and harvest crops, as well as sophisticated sensor technologies and computational methods to
collect and analyze data. This information can then be used to optimize growing and harvest-
ing conditions. Minimal (or no) pesticides are required during the indoor production cycle. The
traceability of the food supply is far superior, in that a plant food source can be traced back to
the square inch or the seed if needed. The growing period for produce is drastically reduced in
vertical farming, allowing production runs to quickly adapt to changing demands. Moreover, ver-
tical farms are much less susceptible to changes in climate, which will be important as outdoor
growing conditions are affected on conventional farms by climate fluctuations. Finally, vertical
farms are typically situated close to urban markets and are able to supply local greengrocers with
minimal carbon footprint products, as the produce does not require much transit or extended
storage conditions. For instance, a vertical farm jointly operated by CropOne (based in Califor-
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nia) and Emirates Flight Catering produces greens for Dubai’s airport and reports 99% less water
consumption than conventional production.
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Improved sustainability through alternative proteins. Scientists are currently identifying al-
ternative sources of proteins that can be incorporated into the human diet, such as those arising
from plants, insects, microbes, and tissue cultures. Indeed, one of the most widely publicized appli-
cations of modern food technology has been the creation of plant-based meats. The plant-based
burgers created by companies such as Impossible Foods and Beyond Meat in the United States
have been a huge commercial success. The complexity of the science behind their creation, how-
ever, is often unappreciated. The assembly of plant-based ingredients, such as the proteins from
peas or soybeans, into something that looks, smells, tastes, feels, and even sounds like meat is
truly remarkable (Figure 4). The muscles, connective tissue, and adipose tissue of animals con-
sist of specific molecules organized into highly complex hierarchical structures. Making meat-like
structures from plant proteins and other ingredients required understanding their properties at

Mouthfeel
Breakdown/texture-time Aroma
Sound Specific volatile profile
Bubbling and
evaporation

Incident light Taste

Specific tastant profile

Texture
Small and large
deformation Scattered light
Appearance
Light absorption and scattering

Figure 4
Structural design principles have been used to create plant-based foods that mimic the desirable sensory,
physicochemical, and rheological properties of traditional animal-based foods, such as burgers.

www.annualreviews.org • A Resilient, Sustainable, and Healthier Food Supply 13

 a fundamental level and involved years of work involving food chemists, physicists, biologists,
engineers, and sensory scientists.
Scientists are also developing microbial- and insect-based products to replace meat (Akhtar
& Isman 2018, van Huis & Oonincx 2017). Many of these alternative protein sources have fairly
comparable nutritional profiles, such as macronutrient and micronutrient levels, to meat. Never-
theless, a great deal of technological knowledge is still required to economically and sustainably
produce them at the scale required to replace conventional meat, as well as to convert them into
products that people find desirable.

FOOD AND HEALTH

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The Problem
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Even when there is sufficient food to feed all the people on the planet, there are still problems
associated with the type and amount of food consumed (McClements 2019). In both developed
and developing countries, there are large segments of the population who suffer from hunger and
malnutrition because they do not have access to affordable high-quality foods. At the same time,
there are other segments of the population who suffer from chronic diseases related to the con-
sumption of too much food or the wrong types of food. As an example, deaths from heart disease,
cancer, obesity, and diabetes continue to increase (Figure 5), many of which can be attributed to
poor diet and a lack of physical activity. Technological innovations may be able to improve the
nutritional value of foods to tackle both undernutrition and overnutrition.

Deaths from diet-related diseases

40,000

35,000

30,000
Deaths per year (× 1,000)

25,000
Obesity
Diabetes
20,000
Cancers

15,000

10,000

Cardiovascular
disease
5,000

0
1990 1992 1994 1996 1998 2000 2002 2004 2006 2008 2010 2012 2014 2016
Year
Figure 5
The deaths from diet-related diseases continue to increase globally. Data from Our World in Data
(http://www.ourworldindata.org).

14 McClements et al.
 Potential Solutions
In this section, some technological solutions are discussed that are being developed to improve
the healthiness of the food supply.

Reducing malnutrition. There are still many people around the globe who suffer from severe
hunger and undernutrition, often a result of poverty, war, or political/economic disruptions. So-
lutions to these crises typically require action by governmental or international agencies aimed at
addressing political or economic issues. Even so, technological innovations can help address some
of these challenges by increasing the efficiency of food production, storage, and transport. Genetic
engineering can create crops that are more resilient to environmental changes, produce higher
yields, enhance nutritional quality, or reduce losses (Altpeter et al. 2016). Automated (robotic)
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farming technologies can increase the efficiency of food production (Wilde 2020). Modern sen-
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sor technologies and data storage/analysis techniques collect and share information that can be
used to optimize production conditions (Pal & Kant 2020). For example, information about soil
conditions, climate, and plant health and growth stage can be used to identify optimum seeds,
fertilizers, pesticides, application times, etc. Food design approaches can be used to fortify foods
with essential micronutrients (vitamins and minerals) and increase their bioavailability, which can
help alleviate malnutrition due to nutrient deficiencies. For instance, creating nanosized versions
of oil-soluble vitamins, such as vitamin A, D, or E, can increase their bioavailability and therefore
health benefits (Katouzian & Jafari 2016).
One of the major problems in this area is that many of the technologies are too expensive for
the populations that need them. Consequently, it will be important for government and industry
to develop cost-effective strategies to ensure these technologies are implemented in a way that
can benefit the people most in need. Moreover, there is often resistance to the adoption of new
technologies from both local populations and nongovernmental organizations, as demonstrated
by the resistance to genetically modified fortified crops (such as Golden Rice).

Reformulating dietary composition to improve health. For most of the world’s history, the
majority of humans suffered from chronic conditions linked to eating too little food. According to
the World Health Organization, there are now more people dying from chronic conditions linked
to overeating (such as stroke, obesity, diabetes, and heart disease) than to undereating (starvation
and malnutrition). As an example, data for the main causes of death in the world in 2017 are
shown in Figure 5. Many of the most common causes of death (stroke, obesity, diabetes) are a
result of diet-related factors, such as high levels of calories, fat, sugar, or salt in the diet, or low
levels of whole grains, fruits, vegetables, nuts, seeds, and ω-3 fatty acids. There has therefore been
an effort to reformulate foods to improve their nutritional profile, with an aim to increasing their
healthfulness.
Obesity and diabetes have been linked to overconsumption of calorie-rich high-fat and high-
sugar foods, like breads, cakes, candies, cookies, and snacks (Gibney et al. 2017, Hruby & Hu 2015,
Mozaffarian 2016). Consequently, there has been a drive to develop reduced-fat and reduced-sugar
versions of conventional foods so as to reduce their energy density (Chung et al. 2016, Jaenke
et al. 2017, Kroger et al. 2006). This is often challenging because fats and sugars play a critical
role in determining the desirable appearance, texture, and flavor of many foods. Once removed,
consumers do not find the healthier versions as appealing, so they do not purchase them. Re-
search is therefore being carried out to establish the molecular and physicochemical basis of food
deliciousness, which requires a combination of fundamental physical, rheological, chemical, bio-
logical, sensorial, and psychological methods (McClements 2019). Foods are extremely complex
materials comprising multitudes of different constituents assembled into complicated hierarchical

www.annualreviews.org • A Resilient, Sustainable, and Healthier Food Supply 15

 Fat droplets

Protein Starch granules

microparticles
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Hydrocolloids
Indigestible
fat droplets

Biopolymer
microgels
Figure 6
Schematic representation of fat droplets and starch granules and some of the strategies that can be used to
mimic their properties in foods.

structures. Understanding their properties is extremely challenging, which often makes it difficult
to create high-quality reduced-calorie alternatives to conventional foods.
As a specific example, consider the impact of fat droplets on the properties of high-calorie emul-
sified food products, such as condiments, creams, dressings, fillings, and sauces. The fat droplets
scatter light waves, modulate fluid flow, and solubilize flavors, which contributes to the desirable
creamy appearance, texture, and taste of emulsified foods. It is difficult to find low-calorie ingre-
dients that can replace all the desirable characteristics of fat droplets. Some potential food-design
approaches that have been developed, such as those for dietary fibers, starch granules, protein mi-
croparticles, and microgels, are highlighted in Figure 6. These nonfat particles can often mimic
some of the desirable characteristics of fat droplets, such as their appearance or texture, but not
all of them. Clearly, more research is required to reformulate many processed foods to make them
both healthy and delicious, which will require a much more detailed understanding of the com-
plexities of food architecture and the interaction of foods with the human senses.

Modulating food digestibility. A recent randomized clinical trial compared the impact of the
degree of processing on the health impact of foods (Hall et al. 2019). Subjects were given either
ultraprocessed foods or nonprocessed foods, which were matched for overall calories, energy den-
sity, fat, protein, carbohydrates, sodium, and fiber. The subjects consuming ultraprocessed foods
tended to eat more and put on more weight than those on the nonprocessed diet. The authors
concluded that limiting the amount of ultraprocessed foods consumed may therefore help pre-
vent obesity.
The results of this study suggest that the extent of food processing has a major impact on the
way foods behave in the human body. In particular, highly processed foods tend to be rapidly
digested and absorbed, which alters metabolic and hormonal responses. Repeated consumption

16 McClements et al.
 of highly processed foods may eventually lead to metabolism dysregulation, thereby leading to
chronic diseases such as obesity and diabetes. It may lead to spikes in blood sugar or lipid levels and
reduce feelings of satiety and satiation, hence promoting overeating. Food scientists are therefore
trying to develop a new generation of processed foods that taste delicious but are chewed and
digested more slowly, thereby preventing the problems associated with the rapid release of sugars
and lipids from foods (Gibney et al. 2017).
The diet of our ancient ancestors consisted mainly of foods that were raw or only slightly pro-
cessed, including grasses, seeds, nuts, berries, root vegetables, eggs, fish, and animal flesh (Standage
2009). These foods contain intact biological structures, such as plant cell walls, which must be bro-
ken down inside our guts before the nutrients can be released (Holland et al. 2020). The human
gastrointestinal tract has therefore evolved structures and functions that are efficient at breaking
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down these tough natural structures, such as teeth, acidic gastric juices, a churning stomach, di-
gestive enzymes, and bile salts. In ancient times, most foods consumed by humans were broken
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down relatively slowly, but in modern times ultraprocessed foods are rapidly digested and absorbed
within our guts. This is because food processing operations are highly efficient at disrupting the
natural structures in foods.
Researchers have therefore focused on the development of strategies to retard the digestion
of processed foods within the human gut, particularly lipids and starches (Grundy et al. 2016).
This can be achieved by using both food processing and food design approaches. For instance,
food processing operations are being redesigned to leave many of the natural structures in foods
intact so that they slow down the digestion of fats and starches. As an example, whole-grain breads
are digested more slowly than highly processed white bread because the starch is trapped inside
natural protective structures that prevent the digestive enzymes from reaching it (Scazzina et al.
2013). Alterations in food manufacturing processes are also being used to change the molecular
organization of the starch molecules in foods so that more is available in a slowly digestible or
resistant form (Ashwar et al. 2016). Starch digestion and absorption can also be reduced by incor-
porating dietary fibers into foods, which are designed to inhibit the ability of digestive enzymes
from reaching the starch molecules (Gidley 2013, Williams et al. 2019). Dietary fibers may achieve
this by increasing the viscosity of the gastrointestinal fluids, binding to digestive enzymes, or cre-
ating protective barriers around starches (Capuano 2017, Gidley & Yakubov 2019). The activity of
digestive enzymes may also be reduced by incorporating natural substances, such as plant polyphe-
nols, in foods that bind to them and inactivate them (McDougall & Stewart 2005, Xiao et al. 2013).
Similar approaches can be used to inhibit the digestion of fat in the gut, thereby preventing spikes
in blood lipid levels ( Joyce et al. 2016, McClements et al. 2009). Many of these structural de-
sign approaches are still being developed and tested in research laboratories, and further research
is required to ensure they are efficacious under real conditions. Nevertheless, this research may
lead to a new generation of processed foods that are affordable, delicious, and convenient but also
healthier.

Food as medicine. Functional foods contain one or more bioactive components that are claimed
to improve human health, such as vitamins, minerals, nutraceuticals, dietary fibers, and probiotics.
It has been reported that there were nearly $267 billion in sales of fortified and functional foods in
2020 (Sloan 2020). There has also been growing interest from consumers in improving their health
by taking dietary supplements containing bioactive components. For instance, approximately 77%
of adults in the United States used dietary supplements in 2019, with total supplement sales of
around $49.3 billion (Sloan 2020). Consumers are increasingly looking for specific health benefits
from functional foods and dietary supplements. As mentioned earlier, there has been interest in
foods that can boost the immune system to create resilience against viral and bacterial infections.

www.annualreviews.org • A Resilient, Sustainable, and Healthier Food Supply 17

 Microemulsions

Liposomes Emulsions
Suspensions
Microgels
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Figure 7
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Examples of colloidal delivery systems that can be used to encapsulate, protect, and deliver nutraceuticals in foods and beverages.
Emulsions contain fluid droplets, whereas suspensions contain solid particles (McClements 2015).

At present, this field is still in its infancy and many of the claims made for the health benefits of dif-
ferent food components have not been validated. Multidisciplinary collaborations involving food
science, nutrition, pharmaceutical science, cellular and molecular biology, chemistry, toxicology,
computational methods, and statistics are still required to further develop this field and establish
the efficacy of different bioactive components.
Functional foods fortified with essential minerals, vitamins, nutraceuticals, and dietary fibers
must be carefully designed to ensure that these health-promoting ingredients do not negatively
impact their quality attributes (Gupta 2016). Many bioactive ingredients may be difficult to in-
corporate because of their incompatibility with the food matrix, their tendency to degrade during
storage, their undesirable aromas, tastes, textures, or appearances, or their poor bioavailability
(Zhang & McClements 2016). For these reasons, food scientists are developing structural design
principles to fortify foods with bioactive agents. For instance, nanotechnology is being used to
create a new generation of fortified foods and beverages with enhanced health benefits (Salvia-
Trujillo et al. 2017). Edible nanoparticles are being assembled from food-grade ingredients such
as fats, proteins, and carbohydrates (Figure 7) (McClements 2015). Bioactive components like vi-
tamins, minerals, and nutraceuticals are then packaged inside these nanoparticles to improve their
food compatibility, stability, and bioavailability.

Improving gut health through food design. Traditionally, dietary and nutritional advice has
been targeted at the human host, with the main objective being the provision of their macronu-
trient and micronutrient needs. Our increasing understanding of the role of the microbiome in
human health and disease is leading to a revolution in nutritional sciences (Liang et al. 2018). In
the future, diets will be specifically designed to create and maintain a diverse and resilient mi-
crobiome. At its simplest, this will involve the inclusion of nondigestible carbohydrates such as
dietary fibers or prebiotics to encourage the development of already established beneficial bac-
teria such as Bifidobacterium and certain Faecalibacterium spp. (Azcarate et al. 2017). However, as
evidence continues to emerge linking commensal bacteria to beneficial health outcomes, we can
expect to see more foods and smart ingredients designed to encourage the establishment of these
beneficial bacteria in the gut. For example, diminished levels of Faecalibacterium prausnitzii in the
gut have been linked to inflammatory bowel disease (Cao et al. 2014), whereas low levels of Akker-
mansia muciniphila have been associated with metabolic syndrome (Depommier et al. 2019). It is
likely that personalized diets will be based on not only the nutritional needs of the host but also
the specific composition of the gut (and other) microbiome of every individual. Infant formula
will also be formulated to mimic the beneficial effects of human breast milk on the developing
18 McClements et al.
 microbiome, with long-term effects on the health of the developing infant (Stewart et al. 2018).
This will be particularly important in infants born by caesarean section (Shao et al. 2019), an
increasing phenomenon in high-income countries.
Recent advances in genome-editing technologies are opening new avenues to improve the
genetic profile of probiotics, further enhance functional features of interest such as the ability to
uptake and catabolize undigestible carbohydrate and fibers, modify their propensity to influence
the host immune system and related inflammation, alter their cell-surface composition to increase
binding to epithelial cells lining the gastrointestinal tract, and change their metabolic potential
to modulate gut biochemical composition (Doudna & Sternberg 2017). For instance, efforts are
underway to alter bile-salt hydrolases in probiotic Lactobacillus strains to modulate the bile-acid
pool and promote a healthier microbiota composition by fending off pathogenic bacteria such as
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Clostridioides difficile (Foley et al. 2019). These approaches have the potential to complement and
perhaps even provide alternatives to antibiotic-based therapeutic strategies. Together with recent
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developments in using programmable CRISPR-Cas systems as sequence-specific antibacterials

(Selle et al. 2020), a series of innovative technologies provide new means to modulate the bacterial
composition of the gut microbiome and further improve intestinal health.

Personalized nutrition. The concept of personalized nutrition is that diets should be tailored to
the unique nutritional requirements of a specific individual according to their needs rather than
general populations (Bordoni & Gabbianelli 2019, Gonzalez-Pena & Brennan 2019). The nutri-
tional needs of an individual depend on their lifestyle, age, sex, genetics, metabolism, and micro-
biome. As a result, a young male with obesity requires a different diet than an older female with
diabetes. The possibility of designing diets for specific individuals has arisen because of impor-
tant technological advances in genetics, metabolism, diagnostics, computation, and data analysis
(Eetemadi et al. 2020, McClements 2019). Food, nutrition, and medical scientists can now quan-
tify the multitudes of molecules and microbes found in foods as well as those present in human
biological samples, including blood, saliva, urine, and feces. As an example, alterations in the levels
of specific metabolites and microorganisms inside people when they are exposed to different foods
can be measured. This knowledge is then utilized to link diet, genetics, metabolism, lifestyle, and
health (Bordoni & Gabbianelli 2019). Eventually, it should be possible to formulate diets that are
tailored to the specific nutritional and health requirements of each person.
Personalized nutrition requires that functional foods are created with specific nutrient, nu-
traceutical, prebiotic, and probiotic combinations (Braconi et al. 2018, de Toro-Martin et al. 2017,
Ozdemir & Kolker 2016). In some cases, these bioactive ingredients can simply be mixed into a
food matrix, but in other cases they need specialized encapsulation technologies to disperse and
protect them and increase their bioavailability. Many of the encapsulation technologies discussed
earlier can be used for this purpose (Figure 7). As an example, oil-soluble vitamins (vitamin A, D,
and E) and nonpolar nutraceuticals (like carotenoids, curcumin, and resveratrol) can be incorpo-
rated into delivery systems that contain small hydrophobic particles (like nanoemulsions or emul-
sions) to enhance their water dispersibility, chemical stability, and oral bioavailability (McClements
2015). Single or multiple bioactive agents can be packed into a single delivery system according
to their physicochemical and nutritional attributes

FOOD SAFETY
The Problem
The next few decades will create significant challenges in terms of food safety. Longer food
supply chains, novel food sources, new processing technologies, consumer desires for minimally

www.annualreviews.org • A Resilient, Sustainable, and Healthier Food Supply 19

 processed foods with fewer additives (so-called clean-label foods), the rise in demand for fresh,
natural, and organic foods, and the potential emergence of new pathogens are all likely to be-
come obstacles on the path to delivering a safe, reliable, and economically viable food supply. In
the future, food scientists will have to continue to deliver safe foods under challenging circum-
stances. However, this is not new territory. The quest to deliver safe food has always had to adapt
to new challenges: The need for sufficient food to supply armies traveling long distances led to
the development of canning; providing safe food for space missions gave rise to Hazard Analysis
Critical Control Point (HACCP) analysis; and modified atmosphere packaging owes its origins
to the challenges associated with transporting meat from Australia and New Zealand to Britain
in the 1930s. We can expect that new challenges will lead to innovative new solutions that may
become widely adopted in the food industry in the future. For example, genetically modified foods
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may be designed with built-in safety features, such as crops that are designed to produce their own
endogenous food-grade antimicrobial peptides or metabolites.
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Potential Solutions
Mapping the future direction of food safety is not an easy task, but we can make some predic-
tions under several headings, including processing and risk assessment, ingredient development,
traceability, and novel detection methods.

Food processing and risk assessment. There have been many innovations in terms of food pro-
cessing, including high-pressure processing (HPP), pulsed electric field (PEF), sonication, irradi-
ation, and cold plasma technologies, to name a few (Bevilacqua et al. 2018, Jambrak et al. 2018,
Morales-de la Pena et al. 2019). These technologies have mainly been developed to avoid some
of the undesirable losses in nutritional and sensory attributes caused by traditional thermal pro-
cesses while conferring increased safety and shelf-life on the foodstuff. Many of them also have
lower energy requirements and are more sustainable. The ability of these technologies to destroy
pathogens has been investigated to varying degrees (Bahrami et al. 2020). Currently, many food
safety assessments are conducted by deliberately introducing specific pathogenic strains (or strain
mixes) into model systems and then exposing them to well-defined processing stresses. We can
expect that much of the risk assessment in the future will be performed computationally rather
than by traditional microbial spiking and counting methods. We can confidently predict that our
growing understanding of the complete genome complement of pathogens will provide us with
comprehensive and accurate models of bacterial behavior under almost any stress or normal con-
dition. These models will predict the fate of any pathogens present in a food given information
about its structure and composition and the nature of the processing conditions it experiences.
Similar models will predict the fate of the other microbes likely to be present in a raw foodstuff
and throughout the food chain (the food microbiome) (McHugh et al. 2020), giving us the po-
tential to eliminate pathogenic microbes while retaining beneficial ones. This should support and
accelerate our ability to design and develop new processing modalities while retaining confidence
in the safety of the food supply.

Detection methods. Molecular detection methods based around multitarget PCR technology
and/or other nucleic acid–based detection methods will become central to food monitoring
(Randhawa et al. 2016). This will include real-time sequencing of food samples using technolo-
gies based on nanopore sequencing protocols (Yang et al. 2020). This will give instant readouts
on the number and nature of the microbes present within a sample that can be used to inform
retail and consumption decisions. These highly sensitive and rapid diagnostics will probably be
pioneered in the clinical sciences but will quickly move into the food chain. We can also anticipate

20 McClements et al.
 the development of smart labels that will detect volatile microbial metabolites, thereby monitoring
microbial activity within food products and giving real-time readouts on their safety and quality
rather than relying on prescribed shelf life and “best before” labels that can lead to large quanti-
ties of food being discarded unnecessarily. Indeed, smart-packaging materials have already been
developed that provide information about the freshness of meat and seafood, which are simply
based on changes in the color of the packaging in response to the formation of volatiles produced
by spoilage organisms (Dong et al. 2020).

Food traceability. The origin and history of a food are likely to play an increasingly important role
in consumer food choices in the future. Consumers want to know where their foods came from
as well as how they were transported, processed, and stored so they can assess their safety, quality,
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nutritional profile, and sustainability. This will require the development of innovative technolo-
gies to track and record the history of individual food products and then provide the consumer
Annu. Rev. Food Sci. Technol. 2021.12:1-28. Downloaded from www.annualreviews.org

with access to the information in an accessible form. Several companies have already developed
technologies that consumers can use to scan the label of a product and obtain information about
its nutritional value (Maringer et al. 2019). Some supermarkets in the Netherlands now provide
customers with the opportunity to obtain detailed information about the origin of a product and
the journey it took to reach the shop by simply scanning a Quick Response (QR) code on its label
(Gibson 2019). For instance, a person can pick up a bottle of orange juice on a supermarket shelf
and see images of the orange grove it was picked from and how it was transported across the globe.

Next-generation natural antimicrobials. Traditionally, many of the antimicrobials used to pre-

serve foods were naturally produced from lactic acid bacteria such as bacteriocins (e.g., nisin),
organic acids (e.g., lactate, propionate, acetate), and citrus fruits (e.g., citrate). Efforts to improve
on natural preservatives were formulated from genetic selection and engineering (Field et al. 2015)
and production of synthetic chemicals (Davidson et al. 2020). However, because of consumer con-
cerns about the potentially negative health and environmental impacts of these substances, there
has been growing interest in developing natural antimicrobials (Quinto et al. 2019). Bacteriocins
and bacteriophages have already been successfully deployed in the food industry, and their mech-
anisms of action are well understood (Aziz & Karboune 2018, Garcia et al. 2010, Singh 2018).
There has also been great interest in essential oils and other phytochemicals that exhibit strong
antimicrobial activity (Rao et al. 2019). These substances are often secondary metabolites devel-
oped by plants to protect themselves from microbes, insects, or herbivores (Wink 2003). Essential
oil nanoemulsions have been shown to be effective against various types of spoilage and pathogenic
organisms found in foods (Donsi & Ferrari 2016). These formulations consist of tiny essential oil–
rich droplets (d < 200 nm) dispersed in water. The small size of the droplets facilitates their ability
to interact with the surfaces of microorganisms. The mechanisms of action of these chemical an-
timicrobial agents are still being investigated. However, it is mainly believed that these constituents
disrupt cell membranes and interfere with key components, such as enzymes, transcription factors,
signaling molecules, and transporters, in the biochemical pathways that microbes need to survive
and reproduce (Rao et al. 2019).
In the future, more attention will likely be given to developing both more effective broad-
spectrum antimicrobials (e.g., bacteriocins) and selective antimicrobials (e.g., phage and synthetic
preservatives) that eliminate a particular pathogen without destroying other members of the nat-
ural food-supported human microbiome that may be beneficial to health.

Nontargeted detection techniques. In the modern food supply, raw materials, ingredients, and
finished products are transported around the world as part of a highly integrated global supply

www.annualreviews.org • A Resilient, Sustainable, and Healthier Food Supply 21

 network. Food purchasers and consumers are therefore vulnerable to economic fraud and adul-
teration, e.g., suppliers claiming a product is something that it is not. Moreover, foods are suscep-
tible to inadvertent or deliberate contamination with toxic substances throughout the food chain.
Consequently, it is important to have analytical tools that can rapidly and reliably detect adul-
teration or contamination. Conventional targeted-detection techniques are designed to identify
compounds with known chemical structures, which usually involves calibrating instruments with
standard compounds so as to carry out qualitative and/or quantitative analyses (Gao et al. 2019).
These methods can be utilized to detect known food components but are not particularly useful
in detecting food adulteration or contamination with unknown substances. In contrast, nontar-
geted detection methods do not measure a specific compound but detect abnormal substances
that may be present in a sample without needing to know their chemical structures beforehand.
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Nontargeted methods generally involve detection of “fingerprints” using well-established ana-

lytical instruments such as chromatography (high-performance liquid chromatography and gas
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chromatography), spectroscopy (infrared, Raman, fluorescence, and nuclear magnetic resonance),

mass spectrometry, and hyperspectral imaging, followed by analysis using advanced chemometric,
bioinformatic, or statistical data-processing techniques (Gao et al. 2019). Nontargeted detection
techniques can differentiate berries obtained from different cultivars and growing locations (Lu
et al. 2014), nonmilk proteins from milk proteins (Lu et al. 2015), and organically grown oregano
from its conventionally produced counterpart (Gao et al. 2014). Gao and colleagues (2019) have
recently reviewed other applications of nontargeted detection approaches.

CONCLUSIONS
Technological advances are occurring in many areas of science that are rapidly impacting how our
foods are being produced, distributed, and consumed (McClements 2019, WEF 2019). Scientists
from a broad spectrum of disciplines are contributing to these advances. The application of these
technological innovations is being employed to tackle urgent challenges facing the modern food
supply, such as feeding an expanding world population while minimizing environmental impacts,
reducing the incidences of diet-related diseases, and improving the safety, quality, resilience, and
diversity of the food supply (Poore & Nemecek 2018, Willett et al. 2019). Starting with the in-
dustrial revolution, the food manufacturing industry has successfully produced a diverse range of
affordable, convenient, and delicious foods. However, the impact of these foods on human health
and the environment has often been ignored. Looking forward, it will be critical for food science
and technology to focus on improving the nutritional and sustainability aspects of foods. This will
require pronounced changes in the way food scientists work in academia, government, and indus-
try. In addition, modern food science will benefit from researchers working in other disciplines uti-
lizing their unique perspectives and expertise to tackle these critical issues, including agricultural
scientists, nutritionists, computer engineers, biotechnologists, polymer scientists, nanotechnolo-
gists, genetic engineers, medical professionals, psychologists, and consumer scientists. In a recent
report, the World Economic Forum highlighted the huge potential that new technologies have to
transform the global food supply but also noted that the food industry has been relatively slow to
harness the power of these technologies (WEF 2019). Indeed, they estimate that the investment
in start-ups in food and agriculture was less than 10% of that in healthcare. There is, therefore,
still an urgent need for more innovation in the food sector, as well as fantastic opportunities for
those who would like to invest in this area.
In summary, a holistic approach will be required to address the current challenges to the global
food system so that we can produce safe, nutritious, abundant, and affordable foods in a sustain-
able manner. As stressed in the World Economic Forum report (WEF 2019), this will require

22 McClements et al.
 “improved policy, increased investment, expanded infrastructure, farmer capacity-building, con-
sumer behavior change, and improved resource management.” Innovations in technology like the
ones highlighted in this article will play a key role in this transformation.

DISCLOSURE STATEMENT
R.B. is a shareholder of DuPont, Caribou Biosciences, Intellia Therapeutics, Locus Biosciences,
Inari Ag, Invaio, TreeCo, Ancilia Therapeutics, and CRISPR Biotechnologies. The authors are
not aware of any other affiliations, memberships, funding, or financial holdings that might be
perceived as affecting the objectivity of this review.
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ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
Annu. Rev. Food Sci. Technol. 2021.12:1-28. Downloaded from www.annualreviews.org

This material was partly based on work supported by grants from the National Institute of Food
and Agriculture, USDA, Massachusetts Agricultural Experiment Station (MAS00491) and USDA,
AFRI (2016-08782).

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Annual Review of
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Building a Resilient, Sustainable, and Healthier Food Supply Through

Innovation and Technology
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Alternatives to Meat and Dairy

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Cellular Agriculture: Opportunities and Challenges
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Adverse Effects of Thermal Food Processing on the Structural,
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Thermal Decontamination Technologies for Microorganisms and
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Carotenoids: Considerations for Their Use in Functional Foods,
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